Reports sourced from tonnes of websites including http://www.techtree.com, www.strategypage.com, www.dhgate.com, www.infodriveindia.com, www.unwiredview.com and www.goarticles.com, indicate that last year, 2009, the Chinese government placed a ban on the shipment of fake and cheap phones from China for two reasons; firstly, they were found not to have international mobile equipment identification (IMEI) numbers, otherwise known as Serial Numbers; and secondly there was no evidence that any tests had been conducted on those phones to check whether the levels of RF emissions from them were within the stipulated international standards.
According to the reports, initially the Chinese government sought to deny the anomalies and allowed importation of fake unbranded phones to continue, until India, for instance, banned all Chinese phones citing security reasons. The Chinese government then ordered a halt in shipment, but reports say even while the ban was in force, sales figures showed that the exports of fake phones continued unabated because no stringent measures were put in place to stop the shipments.
Some of the stories about the ban of fake Chinese phones came under the following headlines: ‘Info Warfare: India bans Chinese cells phones’; ‘Chinese phones banned in India for security reasons’; ‘Chinese Mobile: The Flip-flop Continues’; ‘Own a Chinese Phone? Check you IMEI Now’; ‘Chinese Phones without IMEI get Barred’; and ‘Phones with No or Fake IMEI to Die.’
When the stories begun to go public, the perpetrators started to issue fake IMEI numbers to some fake phones in China. As a result, several phones got the same serial numbers; others even got two serial numbers, so that in case of theft or loss, people could still not trace their phones through their serial numbers because the numbers themselves were fake. But the issue of the RF radiation levels was not dealt with and yet the shipment of such phones continues, with Ghana as one of the major destinations in recent times.
Because the levels of RF emissions cannot be guaranteed, patrons of such phones risk facing some unusual biological and possibly health effects when they use such phones. So there is still cause of concern.
Some of those fake phones can take two simcards at a time, they come with an extra battery and some of them have very attractive functions, like touch screen and others, which are not on the original genuine versions.
There is, however, ample evidence that those types of phones freeze very often, have relatively very short life spans of less than a year, and the batteries go dead in just months.
