In the interest of national security, the Department of Telecom (Govt. of India) (vide reference NO-20-40/2006/BS-III(PT)(VOL.I)/201 dated 3rd September 2009), has directed all cellular mobile service providers not to allow calls to be made from any mobile handset with an invalid IMEI number from 30th November 2009 onwards.

This procedure works only in India.

To check the validity of handset’s IMEI number, these are the simple steps:

Type the code #06# on the mobile handset.

The 15 digit IMEI number of the handset will appear on the screen.

Send a SMS as IMEI < Space> < IMEI number> to 52277 toll free from any GSM handset with a valid IMEI Number.

Example: If the IMEI number of your handset is “123456789012345“, SMS “IMEI 123456789012345” to 52277.

Note: On Blackberry handsets, the IMEI number on the screen contains dots e.g. 123.456.789012345. Make sure that we do not to include any dots in the IMEI number when sending the SMS to 52277.

Invalid Number

I wonder if the IMEI number of stolen mobile would also be included in the definition of invalid IMEI number.