Concerned over internal security, the Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) has completely banned import of CDMA mobile phones with no Electronic Serial Number (ESN)/Mobile Equipment Identifier (MEID) or with all zeroes as ESN/MEID. These electronic numbers help authorities identify and track users.
As of now, there are nearly 100 million CDMA users in India with additional 5.8 million users being added per month. CDMA phones are mainly imported from the countries like China and Thailand.
Although CDMA operators added that CDMA phones sold by the operators have all the necessary unique numbers, the phones available in the open market do not carry any ESN and MEID number, which creates a security concern.
After the Mumbai terrorist attacks lat year in November, concerns were raised over usage of such phones as a serious threat to security.
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