---
title: Combating invalid IMEIs on home-grown emerging market smartphones - Developing Telecoms
description: With a growing number of mobile phones coming to market with invalid identification IMEI numbers, device configuration and intelligence provider Mobilethink is launching a generic settings tool as part of its remit to support all devices used in GEM markets.
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date: 2013-08-22T11:39:41Z
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With a growing number of mobile phones coming to market with invalid identification IMEI numbers, device configuration and intelligence provider Mobilethink is launching a generic settings tool as part of its remit to support all devices used in GEM markets...

With a growing number of mobile phones coming to market with invalid identification IMEI numbers, device configuration and intelligence provider Mobilethink is launching a generic settings tool as part of its remit to support all devices used in GEM markets.

According to Gartner, brand devices from China and India sold more than Samsung, Apple and LG combined in 2011. Now, with around 30% of smartphones in global markets being these feature-rich, low-cost devices, customer care centres are finding that many have invalid IMEIs.

As a result, care centres cannot use the usual device settings to get mobile users in their networks online and downloading revenue generating data, or sending MMS. This device headache is causing havoc at customer care centres and is damaging customer experiences in choosing a specific carrier for their mobile needs.

Mobilethink has established from its device intelligence Analytics Reporting Solution that most of these IMEI-less mobile phones use specific chipsets and has therefore worked closely with the manufacturers over the past year to develop a one-for-all solution.

The generic solution is available from Mobilethink’s automatic device configuration channel.

“This generic settings tool is a turning point in the mounting problem of invalid IMEIs in carrier networks,” says Thomas Yde Frederiksen, Mobilethink’s chief of product management and marketing. “Using it, network operators can now generate data revenues from all users in their networks whether they have IMEIs or not.”

More info:

- [www.mobilethink.com](http://www.mobilethink.com/)

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