Blocking of lost, stolen mobiles to be introduced soon: TRAI

Telecom regulator TRAI is expected to shortly finalise its recommendations on blocking lost or stolen mobile handsets to prevent misuse of the stored data and personal information in lost handsets. 

The initiative is part of the regulator's efforts to curb the illegal handset market and discourage the rampant theft of handsets.

The recommendations are expected to be out within a month, TRAI officials say.

They said infrastructure similar to that for stopping pesky calls needs to be put in place before telecom operators are able to disable lost or stolen habdsets.

"TRAI will come out with recommendations on ways to block lost or theft mobile phones using International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number within a month," said a TRAI official.

IMEI is a unique serial number that identifies the handset. It is stored in the equipment identity register (EIR) database of the service provider.