Indian Government Will Soon Be Able To Track Stolen Mobiles More Effectively

People unlucky enough have had their smartphones being lost, and more, unfortunately, stolen. It is a common sight in police stations to see multiple people lining up to file a report for stolen handsets in India. There has already been a large outcry over the authorities inability and ill-equipped manner to tackle this issue. The widespread evil that has already affected most people either directly or indirectly. Now, The Department of Telecommunications of the Indian Government is reportedly ready with a new system to finally tackle the extremely evident problem.

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DoT’s new system will be capable of tracking mobile phones that are detectable even if they have their SIM cards removed or IMEI numbers changed. As per a report, the new system will be called the Central Equipment Identity Register which will be deployed nationwide in August. CIER is a new technology for tracking lost and stolen phones which have been under development since July 2017 under the DoT. The agency was instructed to create a system that discourages theft and snatching cases that prevalent in the country by the Indian Government. 

Mobile phone theft and snatching cases have blown out of control over the past couple of years. According to reports, a 500% increase of snatching cases has been reported in New Delhi alone over the last five years. The Indian Government has reportedly allocated a sum of INR 15 crores for the spread of the CIER system throughout the country. CIER will make all stolen or lost handsets unusable across every service provider networks. Most stolen phones are sold in the black market where new IMEI numbers are flashed on these devices to make them untraceable. The new method will still affect the stolen devices with changed IMEI numbers making them just an expensive paperweight, unusable across networks.

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IMEI database of all mobile operators will be consolidated in one central system. It means that network providers will be able to share details of stolen or lost handsets to be blocked from future use. The new system is currently being tested for the first time in Maharashtra. Indian Government have finally found a concrete method to crack down on criminals that harm its lawful citizens. It can potentially save the people crores in rupee from the loss of property. CIER is a much-needed system which will finally be put into practice.