Mobile phone lost or stolen? You will soon be able to track and block it

The report quotes a senior government official who told that the technology development body Centre for Department of Telematics (CDoT) has been running the pilot of the CEIR system in some of the telecom circles, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and North East region. The DoT official said that the system is now ready for pan-India deployment.

“CEIR system is scheduled for pan-India launch on May 17,” the official said.

As per the report, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Project Board at CDoT Rajkumar Upadhyay has also confirmed that the technology is ready for pan-India deployment. However, he did not confirm the date.

“The system is ready and now it will be deployed across India in this quarter. This will enable people to block and track their lost mobile phones,” Upadhyay said.

CDoT has been able to add features to check the use of cloned mobile phones across all telecom networks in the country.

The government has also made it mandatory to disclose IMEI of mobile devices before their sale in India. For those unaware, IMEI is a 15-digit numeric identifier which is unique to every mobile phone.

The mobile networks will have access to the list of approved IMEI numbers which will check the entry of any unauthorised mobile phones on their network.

Telecom operators and CEIR system will have visibility into IMEI number of the device and mobile number linked to it, and the information is being used in some states to track your lost or stolen mobiles through CEIR.

“One of the common practices is that miscreants change IMEI number of stolen mobile phones which prevents tracking and blocking of such handsets. It was a national security issue. The CEIR will be able to block any cloned mobile phones on the network with the help of various databases,” Upadhyay said.

The basic purpose of CEIR is to ease reporting of stolen and lost mobiles and block the use of mobiles all over the country. This will discourage the theft of mobile phones, enable the tracing of the stolen and lost mobiles to the police, detection of cloned or counterfeit mobiles, restrict the use of such cloned mobiles, as well as protect the interest of the consumers by making them aware of the information related to fake and cloned mobile phones.

(With inputs from PTI)