Slashdot Mirror


India Hanging Up On 25 Million Cell Phones

jvillain writes "India is about to pull the plug on 25 million cell phones in the name of fighting terrorism and fraud. 'The ban by India's Department of Telecommunications has been unfolding gradually since Oct. 6, 2008, six weeks before the attacks in Mumbai killed 173 people and wounded 308. A memo then directed service providers to cut off cellphone users whose devices didn't have a real IMEI — or unique identity number — in the interests of 'national security.' Since then, the move has picked up steam as a way to circumvent terrorists using black market, unregistered cellphones. The Mumbai attackers kept in touch with each other via cellphones and used GPS to pinpoint their attacks, which started Nov. 26, 2008, and went on for three days. The telecommunications department has issued warnings and deadlines through 2009 but has announced this one is for real, telling operators to block cellphones without valid IMEI numbers. Previously, it warned companies to stop importing them and customers to stop buying them.'"

1 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Yet another fake news. Please don't believe it. by BhaKi · · Score: 0, Troll

    This news is similar in intent to the previous fake news:

    http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=30DEC75D-1A64-67EA-E43462F642213B89

    Just as in the case of previous news, I went through Indian media extensively and I couldn't find ANY THING like this.

    People, I beg you to wake up.

    --
    The largest prime factor of my UID is 263267.