Chinese Mobiles: The Flip-flop Continues

Mobile operators on a mission to 'legalize' unbranded Chinese handsets.
By now, we have seen numerous flip-flops regarding Chinese phones, sometimes from the government, the other times from the operators. It was only in June that the Directorate-General of Foreign Trade ordered that mobile handsets without an IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) number cannot be imported anymore. Looks like its time for (yet another) operator flip-flop.
So, after a status quo, Chinese handsets are set to make a comeback (not really a comeback, because sales of such handsets apparently had not been affected even after the so called ban on them). So, while we might have had seen many changes in the government and the mobile operators' stance, one thing that has not changed is the sale of such handsets, which continues till date. Unabated.


In the latest move, mobile operators seem to be the ones who are on a mission to "legalize" unbranded Chinese handsets by assigning them new IMEI numbers. This move is similar to the one that was "directed" by the government a few months ago. The cellcos will assign extra, six digit suffixes to existing handsets that share the same IMEI number. Technically (and legally), no two handsets should share an IMEI number. That, however, is not true in case of unbranded Chinese handsets. While some do not come with an IMEI number at all, others have spoofed IMEIs with thousands of handsets sharing the same IMEI number. Now, this causes huge issues for the cellcos because they are the ones that are obliged to keep a watch on who uses their networks. In the past, with legal handsets, it was not a difficult task to track down the mobile phone using which a certain call was made. With spoofed IMEIs, thousands of phones share the same IMEI resulting a loophole for criminals and other such entities to escape from the police. It is this loophole that the cellcos want to block by assigning modified IMEIs.

Nice. It looks quite rosy on paper. However, what has been lacking is the implementation part of this. Chinese handsets have proliferated so deeply into the market that it is virtually impossible to quarantine each and every handset out there. The operators also seem reluctant to "cut off" access to such handsets as that would affect revenues. If that was not all, people who had purchased such handsets would find their handsets unusable one fine day. That's unfair for them because they have paid money to purchase these handsets. Now, what the operators are doing here is "walking the tight rope" and toeing a middle line. Its success, however, will only be seen if the implementation part of it goes well. This, sadly, has not been the case, at least from the experience we had in the past few months.