Telecom Tuesday is our weekly digest that brings you the buzzing stories in Telecom space.
Internet Telephony to be blocked !
Yes, thats true – The Indian Intelligence Bureau has asked Government to stop all calls happening over Internet with immediate effect for security reasons.
This is a major blow to many companies who have started offering VoIP solutions over the Internet in recent times. Infact there also have been New VOIP specific phones launched in recent times.
Department of Telecommunication has no way to trace the calls made on the Internet and that poses a major risk.
According to IB:
In the absence of Caller Line Identification (CLI) parameters of calls landing from abroad, it’s next to impossible to identify the country of location of the caller. Moreover, of late a number of service providers in India have started providing VoIP solutions for making calls both domestics as well as foreign.
The calls passing through the VoIP/IP route contain inadequate parameters rendering it impossible to trace the actual callers. As DoT had conveyed that it is not possible to mandate transmission of CLI from abroad, we had approached DoT to block such calls till a technical solution is found. (source)
I doubt if there is any fool proof way of tracking the calls made on the Internet.
At the same time, I also doubt whether Indian Govt. or DoT will be able to fully block the calls made on the Internet.
Legally nearly 130 million minutes of internet telephony conversations have happened in the Q1 of 2009 and there are 34 ISPs who provide net telephony service in India. Illegally though, the number may me in multiples of this.
Its a tough problem without really a clear solution to it!
Chinese Phone owners beware – Mobiles carrying Fake or no IMEI number to be completely blocked
Tough luck for the guys who have picked up Chinese mobiles, especially with fake or no IMEI numbers. All calls to and from these phones will be blocked from November 30th. Essentially you will be holding a brick in your hand.
Like VoIP services, even the these phones carry a security risk as the IMEI number is used to identify mobile calls – Handsets without such numbers could be used for terrorist and other subversive activities.
There are about 20 million Chinese handsets without the requisite IMEI numbers but there is no way to track how many handsets have fake IMEI numbers. Most of the Chinese phones purchased from Grey market either have a fake or no IMEI number.
To check whether your phone has an IMEI number:
1. Dial *#06# – A 15-digit number will be displayed on your handset.
2. To validate the IMEI, sms IMEI <15 digit IMEI number> to 53232 (Rs. 3 per SMS) For eg; IMEI 351869910223340 to 53232
- Message displayed for correct IMEI – Success!!
- Message displayed for incorrect IMEI – Alert!!! Invalid IMEI (tough luck)
3. In case of an invalid IMEI, you can either buy a handset with a genuine IMEI number or can follow the below mentioned instructions:
- Visit only authorized GII (Genuine IMEI Implant) centres, set up on Government approved process, which can implant new genuine IMEI on the handset.
- Pay a nominal charge of Rs. 199 (all inclusive) and obtain a receipt.
- Carry your handset with a valid identity proof for identification purposes while visiting these centres.
Nokia entering Telecom Services market
Nokia seems to be aggressively spreading its wings. After recently announcing thier Nokia Booklet 3G, they are now getting into Telecom services business. It seems there mobile hardware sales has hit the roof and are in dire need of expansion in other areas.
For me, this is a great move by Nokia. Now that phones are moving towards becoming much more than just a device to make and receive calls. Majority of mobile users now utilize their mobile phones for social networking, micro blogging etc. Offering services in these areas seems to be a logical extension for Nokia.
It has already inked a location-based service deal with social networking site Facebook. Under the deal, people could update their location and status directly to the social networking site via a Nokia Ovi account.
They are also launching their push mail service like Blackberry this December. In addition to this Nokia is planning to enter the money market, with the launch of ‘Nokia Money Service’- offering basic financial services on mobile phones- by next year.
Author: Arun Prabhudesai
Arun Prabhudesai is founder / chief editor at trak.in. He jumped the Entrepreneurship bandwagon in early 2008 after a long 13 year stint in I.T Industry. You can follow him on twitter @trakin or get in touch with him at admin-at-trak-dot-in or 91.9822575676.Related posts:
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
As for as security is concerned it is a good move by Govt.