I'm a telecom engineer by profession.
IMEI of cell phones from authentic authorized manufacturers has to be unique, internationally, hence the name 'International Mobile Equipment Identity' number.
With regards to IMEI, the term cell phone, is technology dependant. Meaning, a CDMA cell phone and a GSM cell phone may have the same IMEI. But never will two GSM cell phones or two CDMA cellphones have the same IMEI. Multiband cell phones, will share the same IMEI.
IMEI's of every cellphone brought into or manufactured in India by authentic manufacturers like Nokia, Motorola, and even chinese companies like Huawei has to be submitted to TRAI before they go into market. TRAI shares this database with the rest of the operators.
Every operator has a black(Unsafe), gray(Unknown) and white(Safe) list of IMEIs, which basically tells them which ones listed with them, which one isn't and which ones known to be invalid or stolen.
Usually, white and gray listed IMEI's work fine. But with increase in terrorist threats to India, TRAI has been asked\ordered to bar gray list IMEIs too.
This is good since authentic manufacturers won't be able to sell cellphones before the IMEI list is submitted to TRAI. Also this would be great, since IMEI can be used to track stolen cellphones.
The IMEI number is basically embedded in a chip within the cellphone. The service done for Rs.199 would be either to re-write the chip or replace it with a new IMEI.
The IMEI structure is basically simple:
come in a 17 digit or 15 digit sequences of numbers. The IMEI format currently utilized is AA-BBBBBB-CCCCCC-D:
* AA: These two digits are for the Reporting Body Identifier, indicating the GSMA approved group that allocated the TAC (Type Allocation Code).
* BBBBBB: The remainder of the TAC
* CCCCCC: Serial sequence of the Model
* ๐ง Luhn check digit of the entire model or 0 (This is an algorithm that validates the ID number)
Either way, it would be better for the chinese mobile sellers on ebay or offline to get the IMEI patching done themselves, and recover the fee from the buyers.
As for the ones who already own a chinese phone, they could wait until the deadline and see what happens. If the IMEI isn't genuine, they could just get it changed for Rs.199.
Just my 2 Pi.
