Telecom regulator Trai today sought views from service providers and other stakeholders on ways to block lost or stolen mobile phones, to curtail the illegal handset market, discourage handset theft and protect consumer interest.

Terming mobile phone theft as a serious concern to the consumers, Trai said many valuable personal data are stored in mobile handsets.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has released a consultation paper on issues relating to blocking of IMEI for lost/stolen mobile handsets.

Presently, there is no mechanism in place to block a mobile phone in case it is lost. The telecom service providers can only block the SIM card, in case a lost or theft complaint is registered by the user with them.

But, at present, the operators do not block the mobile phone.

As on August 2010, there were 670.61 million wireless connections in the country and around 18 to 19 million connections are being added every month. The exact number of mobile phones lost or missing every month are not available, but according to industry experts the number is alarming.

The regulator is revisiting the issue, after its earlier attempt in 2004 bore no fruit.

In 2004, a number of service providers were not having the capability to track mobile handset in their network.

Therefore, the matter was not proceeded further.

International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is a unique serial number which identifies the handset. This number is stored in the equipment identity register (EIR) database of a service provider.

In case of a complaint regarding theft of a handset, the service provider can flag the IMEI number of the handset and can block the handset in its own network.

If the EIRs of service providers are shared through a centralised database, the lost or stolen mobile can be prevented from use in all networks.

The consultation papers has sought views on the cost and funding aspects of centralised EIR, the process that should be adopted for blocking the IMEI, unblocking facility if a lost phone is found.

The sectoral regulator has asked the stakeholders to submit their views by November, 30, 2010.