The Centre for Department of Telematics (CDoT) has been running a pilot of the CEIR system in multiple telecom circles, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and the North East region.
“CEIR system is scheduled for pan-India launch on May 17,” an unidentified official told PTI.
Chief Executive Officer and Chairman Project Board at CDoT, Rajkumar Upadhyay, confirmed that the technology is ready for pan-India deployment but did not confirm the exact 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 told PTI.
The government body has reportedly added features to the CEIR to check the use of clone mobile phones across all telecom networks.
These features are made possible with the Centre’s move to make it mandatory to disclose mobile phones’ IMEI — a 15-digit unique numeric identifier — before sale in India. 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 added.
According to the CDoT, the main purpose of the CEIR is to ease reporting stolen and lost mobiles and block the use of mobiles all over the country.
The government body aims to 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.
Recently, Karnataka Police recovered and handed over more than 2,500 lost mobile phones to their owners using the CEIR system.
While Apple devices already have a robust tracking system to find mobile phones with the help of Apple ID but major issues have surrounded Android mobile phones.
“The system has an in-built mechanism which will also check the smuggling of phones and help the government from revenue loss to the exchequer as well,” Upadhyay added.
With inputs from PTI