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New Delhi : Union Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on September 13, 2019, launched the maritime communication services at Mumbai. He said that Maritime Connectivity will enable high-end support to those in sea by providing access to Voice, Data and Video services while traveling on sailing vessels, cruise liners, ships in India, using satellite technology.

Nelco, India’s leading VSAT solutions provider, is the first Indian company that will now provide quality broadband services to the maritime sector. Nelco through global partnerships, infrastructure including transponder capacity on satellite of ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) and a comprehensive service portfolio will help Energy, Cargo, and Cruise vessels by enhancing operational efficiency, improving crew welfare and enabling customer services. The IFMC licence has not only enabled connectivity for on-board users on ships but also brings operational efficiencies for shipping companies which were less evolved until now.

In December 2018, the Government of India announced the licenses for In-flight and Maritime Communications (IFMC) that allows voice and internet services while flying over the Indian skies and sailing in Indian waters, both for international and Indian aircrafts and vessels. The IFMC license is a key initiative of the Telecom Ministry, a move to liberalise satellite communication services in India.

Prasad also launched a web portal for reporting of stolen mobiles for tracing purposes, according to a PIB release.  International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is supposed to be an unique identity of a mobile phone device. Generally, a phone with one/two slots of SIM card is programmed with one/two IMEI number as the case may be. IMEI number being programmable, some miscreants do reprogramme the IMEI number, which results in cloning of IMEI causing multiple phone devices with same IMEI number. As on date, there are many cases of cloned/duplicated IMEI handsets in the network.

If such IMEI is blocked, a large number of mobile phones will get blocked being handsets with same IMEI causing inconvenience to many genuine customers. Thus, there is a need to eliminate duplicate/fake IMEI mobile phones from the network. Accordingly, a project called Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) system has been undertaken by the DoT for addressing security, theft and other concerns including reprogramming of mobile handsets.

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