Know your IMEI number

In India if you have a local hand made moblie or a chineese mobile, then please check its IMEI number. It may be fake. The Department of Telecom (DoT) is planning to block cellphones which do not bear the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number.

Many handsets assembled locally or imported from China do not have IMEI numbers. The DoT has also proposed a bar on all mobile phones with IMEI numbers bearing all zeroes or no zeroes. IMEI numbers can be checked by dialing "*#06#" in any keypad.

Investigations into the recent serial blasts revealed that mobile phones used by terrorists did not bear valid IMEI numbers. If they had valid numbers, the phones could have been tracked from their origin to the point of purchase.

It is estimated that there about 1.6 crore handsets in India which do not have valid IMEI numbers, which is a unique 14-digit number used to identify valid devices. If the DoT move goes through, mobile operators will snap services to these phones.

Chinese handsets account for about 13.3%, or Rs 4,000 crore, of India’s total mobile market, which is about Rs 30,000 crore a year.

Every month, about 16.8 lakh Chinese and locally-assembled handsets are sold in India. A GPRS-enabled Chinese handset costs about Rs 3,500, against at least Rs 5,000 for a similar branded phone.

You may check if your mobile's IMEI number is valid or not by bellow site :

http://www.numberingplans.com/?page=analysis&sub=imeinr

So please take care of your self.