Software on anvil to detect illegal mobile phone handsets

The wait for users to find out if a mobile phone is illegal or fake is going to be over soon.

A website is going to tell them that if they send the handset’s International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI).

Every set has a 15-digit IMEI number that gets comes up on the phone screen if *#06# is dialled.

The initiative is being jointly taken by the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Importers Association (BMPIA) and the Bangladesh Telecom Regulatory Commission (BTRC).

Following a Posts and Telecommunications Division directive, BTRC is creating, on a trial basis, a database to track mobile phones entering the country legally, BTRC Spectrum Division Director General Col Md Nasim Parvez told bdnews24.com.

Once the database is officially launched, illegal or fake handsets will be automatically disconnected from the mobile-phone service operators.

But before that, the subscribers will be able to find out if the sets they use are genuine or not.

The BTRC is also moving ahead with a plan to bring fake handsets under its ‘Genuine IMEI Implant Programme’, originally contrived in 2012.

BMPIA General Secretary Rezwanul Haque told bdnews24.com that the importers will start including the IMEI numbers of the new handsets in the database after the software starts working officially.

Once the system is up and running, the users will also be able to check if their handsets are legal or fake on the BMPIA website, he said.

A BTRC official said the work to build the database was at the final stages. The test run is currently on to find out if there are any glitches. After any possible overhaul, the pilot project will be launched.

The official said the telecoms regulators will have full control of the database even though its being build jointly with BMPIA.

Once the IMEI number of a handset is put in the database, the BTRC will lock it and no one will be able to use that number again.

“It won’t be possible to shut the fake handsets very soon. The subscribers’ interest is at stake here. The ‘life time’ of illegal and fake handsets ends after one or two years. So these handsets will be disconnected after a specific time,” the BTRC official added.

According to BTRC, the number of mobile-phone subscribers in Bangladesh was over 131 million at the end of February this year.

Operators say at least 80 million of those SIMs are active.

Law-enforcing agencies have said criminals mostly use un-registered SIMs or SIMs bought with fake national IDs and handsets that have no IMEI numbers.

According to the telecom regulators, currently 108 companies import handsets. In 2015, the number of handsets imported was 27.6 million.

Businesses say one out of three handsets in the market right now is either fake or illegal.

According to them, more than 10 million illegal and fake mobile phones, with a market price of nearly Tk 20 billion, are flooding the market every year and the the money is coming straight from the pocket of the customers.

They said they have to pay nearly 25 percent tax, including 15 percent VAT and 5 percent levy, to the government against each set imported.