CCK and Kenyan Mobile telephony service providers
have now implemented the long awaited activity of switching off counterfeited
phones. The activity was started yesterday and up to now many people have been
seen going back to shops to get other handsets after their devices were
disabled. There is an anticipation of a price rise due to the high demand
though many people have not yet believed it that their phones were switched off.
CCK on its part has implemented the policy aimed at ensuring security in the
mobile phone industry. Although they have taken the action to do so and have
already switched off many phones voices can be heard full of complains from
affected people who thought that there handsets were genuine and were not
worthy the switching off.
The truth of the matter is that not all switched off
phones are counterfeit and not all working phones are original. I have seen
many fake phones still working especially those registered under Samsung trademark.
Therefore, now the question is CCK fair
when doing this?
On my side, I
will not blame them since, like Jesus warns us daily of his coming the same way
people where warned but they ignored. It is hard to keep off counterfeit phones
from Kenya unless corruption is eradicated. It sounds like it is only phones
that were not registered while entering Kenya that were switched off and not
just fake phones. This means that those people who bought their devices while
travelling abroad had their devices switched off too, since they did not
register them while entering Kenya. This is an oversight and maybe CCK can think
of allowing such people to register their phones and pay for import duty and
any other taxes.
Now
that the phone is switched off, does it mean it is dead?
This is what the network provider might have done to
block your phone. You can now check to see whether it can help you in any other
way. The service provider has transferred your IMEI to a certain shared
database( Not sure which) where now individual providers can hinder you from
acesing the network. This is what happens when an IMEI is blocked
“Your network provider puts your
phone’s IMEI no in a shared database called as an Equipment
Identity Register (EIR) which reduces the threats of theft of handsets
by enabling individual operators to prevent the use of such handsets in their
own network.Now to make the the phone inaccessible in other networks (service providers) also, your IMEI no is transferred to Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) which is a database of the IMEI numbers of blacklisted handsets. Once the device number is listed on CEIR, it wouldn’t work with any of the network provider.” Virgintech
It therefore depends on what these providers have
done. If they have just done it locally as I am tempted to think then you can merchandise
your fake handsets in other countries where such an activity has not been
initiated but before you start saying “We buy Switched off phones” be careful.
You may lose the grip and enter in to a pit while rushing for life. Ensure that
you do research to see if it is possible to use such in other countries.
I feel that a collection centre should be established
for those who want to recycle these devices so that they can be sold and the
materials used to make genuine phones but is this possible. Comment below with
your opinion
