How Sri Lanka will benefit by having a Common Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) ?

By Eng. Amila Saputhanthri

Telecommunication industry trends

There are over 28 million mobile connections in Sri Lanka and the population penetration of total SIM penetration is over 100%. The Table 1 below provides the exact figures relevant to mobile device penetration.

Table 1: Telecommunication data summary of Sri Lanka as of May 2018[1], [2]

The mobile subscriber growth in the country has now reached to a saturated level.

Figure 1: Mobile subscriber growth in Sri Lanka [2]

The statistics shown in Table 1 and Figure 1 indicate that there is very high demand for mobile devices in the country and almost every person is having a mobile device. The global mobile subscription predictions, given below in Table 3, indicate 5% worldwide mobile subscription growth and 10% smartphone subscription growth by 2021. GSM/ EDGE only mobile subscriptions are expected to go down by 15% by 2021.

Table 3: Worldwide Devices Shipments by Device Type, 2015-2018 (Millions of Units) [3]

There will be a shift from a world dominated by GSM/EDGE only subscriptions in 2015 to a world dominated by LTE and WCDMA/HSPA-subscriptions in 2021.The capabilities of the mobile devices will be at very high level and to cope up with the highly advanced world, people will need to adapt to those new technologies. The quality of the telecom service depends on the telecom ecosystem. The requirement for high end mobile devices with advanced technological capabilities is increasing.

Mobile devices are one of the major contributors for the quality of the service perceived by customers. If the devices are not made by following proper standards, then the efforts of the operators to provide good service with the support of new technologies such as 4G and 5G will be in vain. Hence to provide them with the necessary QoS, it is essential to regulate the mobile devices available in the market to guarantee the quality of those devices.

Importance of regulating mobile devices

The mobile phone has become an important item particularly in terms of the amount of information stored in it. In today’s scenario, mobile phone thefts are a major problem in countries all over the world. It can also cause a loss of personal data which can be critical for the mobile owner and the data can also be misused. Also, the impact to the device user is very high due to the illegal mobile devices. The quality and the reliability of the device will be low. There can be health hazards as the manufacturing is not done as per the standards.

So, it is beneficial for the country to ensure the usage of tested and quality approved mobile devices and prevention of illegal device usage. The government loses a considerable amount of revenue as the illegal devices are imported  relevant taxes. The stolen mobile devices are used for crimes and it is a threat to national security. The negative impact to the mobile phones industry is also high. The counterfeit and substandard devices are low in cost and it has created an unfair competition. The brand value is also affected due to the low quality of the devices. The operators are also facing many challenges due to this very serious issue. The Quality of Service (QoS) of the services perceived by the customers will also be low. Below given is a summary of negative impacts due to not regulating mobile devices properly [4], [5].

1. For government

• Loss of revenue due to non-payment of customs duties and sales taxes
• Need of additional measures to ensure a compliance with national regulations (import, sale, certification, changing the IMEI etc.)
• Danger to public security (phones with invalid IMEI or “no IMEI” number are potentially attractive for criminal activity and terrorism)

2. For industry

• Losses for right’s holders (unfair competition, loss of sales, price may be affected, copyright and trademark infringement, adverse effect on brand value and reputation)

3. For user

• Low quality (performance degradation, high % of dropped calls, access failures, handover problems)
• Low reliability
• Failed warranty and technical support
• Potential hazard to health (use of hazardous substances, higher SAR, batteries explosion etc.)
• Security and privacy issues (in cases of theft or stolen phone, it is difficult to track the phone with invalid IMEI or “no IMEI” number)

4. For operator

• Lowering QoS of mobile telecommunication services (loss in voice and data capacities, data transmit speeds, reduced coverage)
• Potential interference and EMC problems
• Need of expensive and unnecessary technical measures (more antenna installations, base stations and the need of more spectrum)

Equipment Identity Register (EIR)

Generally, the mobile operators use EIR to validate the mobile devices and allow authenticated devices to use the operator’s network.The methodology used to acquire device details for EIR functionality is to obtain check IMEI requests from the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) or information available in Call Data Record (CDR). That information contains MSISDN, IMEI and IMSI of each device. A check IMEI is generated from MSC during IMSI attached process. IMSI attach process includes following scenarios

1. Turn off and on a mobile device
2. Turning on a new device for the first time (new device detection)
3. Changing the mobile device that has been used.

The EIR Data Base (DB) update parameters are as follows.

• 1.      MSISDN - Mobile Station International Subscriber Directory Number

MSISDN = CC + NDC + SN

CC = Country Code

NDC = National Destination Code

SN = Subscriber Number

• 2.      IMEI - International Mobile Equipment Identity

The IMEI format currently utilized is AA-BBBBBB-CCCCCC-D.

• AA: These two digits are for the Reporting Body Identifier, indicating the GSMA approved group that allocated the TAC (Type Allocation Code).

• BBBBBB: The remainder of the TAC (FAC)
• CCCCCC: Serial sequence of the Model (SNR)
• D: Luhn check digit of the entire model or 0 (This is an algorithm that validates the ID number) (CD)

• 3.      IMSI -International Mobile Subscriber Identity  

This is a unique identifier that defines a subscriber in the wireless world, including the country and mobile network to which the subscriber belongs. All signaling and messaging in GSM and UMTS networks uses the IMSI as the primary identifier of a subscriber. It has the format MCC-MNCMSIN.

• MCC = Mobile Country Code (e.g. 413 for SL)
• MNC = Mobile Network Code
• MSIN = Sequential Serial Number.

Importance of having a Common Equipment Identity Register (CEIR)

            A CEIR is a central database which is connected to the EIRs of all operators in the country. Since, it’s a common database, the information regarding the mobile devices of all operators will be available from one place which will make tracking and reporting very efficient. General practice is to establish a CEIR maintained by an independent party such as the telecommunication regulatory body. By having such a CEIR we can identify and take necessary measures to resolve below observed issues in the country.

• 1.      Availability of grey market mobile devices

A device is recognized as a grey market handset, if its IMEI is not listed in GSM Association (GSMA) IMEI database.

• 2.      Availability of reprogrammed and multiple same IMEIs

The IMEI is a unique identifier of each device. Hence, it is not possible to have more than two records of the same IMEI in device databases of the operators.

• 3.       Operator dependency to identify the availability of a Device

Once operators are informed of a lost device, they check the availability of the device in the network. But at that instance device might not be available in the network. Hence, continuous monitoring of the IMEI should be done. There should be a convenient methodology to identify the availability of a given IMEI without depending on operator feedback.

• 4.       Manual process of acquiring information regarding lost Devices

If a mobile device is lost, the user must go to police and then to Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL). This is a time-consuming process. Once a complaint is made at police, if the process can be automated that the details will be sent to TRCSL and then the availability of lost device in a mobile network will be informed to police, the process will be very efficient.

If a CEIR is established in Sri Lanka, the availability of a device can easily be tracked irrespective of the mobile network which the device is latched onto. So, a CEIR will provide below advantages for government, industry and mobile device users in Sri Lanka.

                   I.            Ensures the quality of telecom products and allow customers to get the maximum value for the money

                II.            Ensures the prevention of health hazards due to nonstandard power and frequency levels

             III.            Guarantees the proper functionality of all features of the devices

             IV.            Prevents mobile device thefts and allows users to find their lost devices more conveniently

                V.            Discourages illegal device manufacturers

             VI.            Allows government to have a clear picture regarding the country’s device trends to define policies and regulations.

Hence, it is recommended to introduce a CEIR for Sri Lanka which is maintained by an independent party such as Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) with the help of all mobile operators including Dialog, Mobitel, Etisalat, Hutch and Airtel.

References

[1] GSMA, "GSMA Intelligence – Data Dashboard” 2018. [Online]. Available:https://www.gsmaintelligence.com/markets/2016/dashboard/.Accessed: May 25, 2018.

[2] TRCSL,” Statistics - telecommunications regulatory commission of Sri Lanka,"2018. [Online]. Available: http://www.trc.gov.lk/images/pdf/statis_q1_2018.pdf. Accessed: May 25, 2018.

[3] Ericsson, “Ericsson Mobility Report,” Ericsson, 2016.

[4] Prof.Yatin Jog et al, "Analysing Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) Model for Mobile Handset Tracking in India," International Journal of Scientific Research, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 188–193, Apr. 2016.

[5] Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, “Consultation Paper on Issues relating to blocking of IMEI for lost /stolen mobile handsets,”. [Online]. Available: https://www.trai.gov.in/sites/default/files/consultationpaper.pdf Accessed: May 25, 2018