Nov. 20, 2009 (The Hindu Business Line) --

With the Union Government setting the November 30, deadline for neutralising all phones without an IMEI number, the Indian Cellular Association (ICA) has said that the problem of cloning of IMEI number too has become rampant.
Copying IMEI number

“They are doing it in India, copying a genuine IMEI number on thousands of fake mobile sets,” said Mr Pankaj Mohindroo, national President of ICA.

Addressing a press conference here, he wanted the Government to look at the cloning.

“They are cloning the IMEI numbers of genuine manufacturers such as Nokia (NYSE:NOK) , Samsung, LG, Sony (NYSE:SNE) Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERICY) and Motorola (NYSE:MOT) ,” he said.

The Government should issue a notification barring all such handsets, he said.
estimate

An estimate put the size of handsets with fake, cloned or duplicate IMEI numbers at 8 per cent (of 430 million handsets).

According to Mr Mohindroo, the fake and counterfeit mobile sets also did not conform to certain safety and functionality standards, posing threats to the users.