Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2891 IMEI Code

At noon, I had lunch in the ministry canteen.

The symposium continued in the afternoon.

According to the plan, the symposium will last for two and a half days.

However, the efficiency in the morning was very high, mainly because Zhou Buqi's personal reputation and industry influence were great enough. Whether it was industry executives or industry experts, almost everyone agreed with his proposal. It was expected that this symposium would be over tomorrow if it didn't end today.

It was Zhou Buqi's first time to eat in the canteen hall of a ministry.

The dining environment here is no worse than that of Ziweixing’s employee cafeteria, and the ingredients are also purchased and supplied by a unified unit, which is equivalent to special supply.

When eating, everyone naturally hopes to sit at the same table with Zhou Buqi.

But this is a dining hall, not a private room.

Only four people can sit at a table.

Then it’s first come first served.

Finally, except for Lei Jun from Xiaomi at Zhou Buqi's table, he didn't know the other two people, who were from Tianyu and Coolpad respectively. They were both company executives and very young, probably in their thirties or forties.

Lei Jun also smiled and took a few cans of milk to share with everyone.

Zhou Buqi refused, "No, I don't drink milk."

Lei Jun asked, "Milk intolerance?"

"Correct."

Zhou Buqi nodded.

Milk is for cows to drink, so there is a certain species separation between it and humans.

It was OK for barbaric and nomadic peoples, who dealt with livestock all year round and could not survive without animal milk. After thousands of years of evolution, their genes changed and they could adapt. However, it was different for the Chinese Empire, which had been engaged in agricultural production for a long time. The Han people did not have the tradition of drinking animal milk, and their genes did not evolve lactase that could break down lactose in animal milk.

Although population migration and intermarriage between the Han and the Hu people over the years have made many Chinese people accustomed to drinking milk, there is still a large number of people who cannot drink milk.

That is, a body type that is intolerant to milk.

Drinking milk will cause diarrhea, and severe cases may even require hospitalization.

A CEO from Tianyu named Zhuang Xiangrong said with emotion: "When I was a child, life was hard and I never drank milk. Later, when I was in my twenties and had the means, I drank milk every day, one cup for breakfast and one cup at night. Then one time... yes, it seems to be here. I came to the ministry for a meeting and also ate in this cafeteria. I drank a glass of milk and then I couldn't stand it. My stomach was churning. From then on, I knew that I was lactose intolerant. It turned out that it was the first time I drank real milk."

Another executive named Dong Fei also agreed, "That's true. I also drank milk abroad once and felt something was wrong. That's when I realized what was going on. At the time, I thought the milk had gone bad."

Zhou Buqi can actually drink milk.

He is from Northeast China.

The paternal side came from eastern Shandong and crossed into Guandong, while the maternal side is a local with Manchu ancestry.

But he is very picky now and has a sophisticated taste.

No milk at all.

In the end, Lei Jun was the only one drinking milk at the table.

While eating, the topic of discussion naturally became the mobile phone industry.

Zhou Buqi is very interested in Tianyu because it was once one of the most prestigious copycat phone manufacturers in China. It has suffered a severe market impact in recent years and has recently been transforming into a smartphone manufacturer.

After a brief chat, I found that Mr. Zhuang Xiangrong seemed very confident that he could lead Tianyu to a successful transformation and gain a place in the smartphone market.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "I looked at the data. In the first half of the year, more than 1 million feature phones were sold in China. Is there still a certain market for copycat phones?"

Zhuang Xiangrong nodded. "There are still some, but not as many as in previous years. The government has tightened control over it. After all, this is a gray industry."

"Gray industry?"

"Uh..." "Tell me about it."

Zhou Buqi was quite interested.

Zhuang Xiangrong had nothing to hide. They were all insiders. If Mr. Zhou wanted to know, he could just ask anyone. He said, "Normally, counterfeit phones are legal. However, legal things are expensive and costly. They have to go through a lot of procedures, and value-added tax has to be added in. There is also a type of counterfeit phone that doesn't go through these legal procedures, which is a greater source of profit."

Zhou Buqi asked: "What are the procedures?"

"There are quite a few, such as... well, such as the IMEI code." Zhuang Xiangrong lowered his voice, "For a period of time, the operators cooperated with the counterfeit phone manufacturers and closed the network access license numbers. Otherwise, a large number of counterfeit phones in the country would not be usable."

The IMEI code is equivalent to the ID number of a mobile phone.

A mobile phone needs an IMEI code before it can get network access permission and connect to the operator, and then it can access the network to make calls and send text messages.

But in fact, in order to allow the large number of copycat phones in the market to be used, operators have relaxed restrictions for a long time and can use them without a network access license number.

Zhou Buqi had some understanding of this and said with a smile: "Don't all the knockoff phones have a lot of repeated IMEI codes?"

Zhuang Xiangrong said, "Yes, and later on, we changed to this strategy. Hundreds of thousands or even millions of mobile phones all use the same IMEI code and have the same network access license number, so they can be used. But now it's no longer possible. Nowadays, high-tech investigations are used, and this illegal IMEI code will hinder the investigation."

Zhou Buqi said "hmm".

Normally, the IMEI code is the ID card of a mobile phone, and each mobile phone has an independent IMEI code.

Therefore, when looking for someone, you can directly find them through the unique IMEI code of the mobile phone.

Rather than a mobile phone number.

Mobile phone SIM cards can be changed frequently, but the IMEI code of the phone is fixed.

Just like in some crime movies, after committing a crime, the bad guys simply pull out the SIM card in their phone and throw it away, thinking that they are almost safe. This is a lack of common sense.

Because the phone card can be directly associated with the IMEI code.

Even if the SIM card is thrown away, the IMEI code has been registered with the police.

The police only need to find the mobile phone with the IMEI code according to the signal source to find the suspect.

So, if anyone loses their mobile phone, it is actually very easy to find it back.

Even if the phone is stolen, turned off, the previous SIM card is thrown away, and the tracking software on the phone is turned off, it is useless. As long as the police want to find it, they can quickly locate the IMEI code, even if the phone is turned off and the battery is removed, it can be recovered in a few hours.

It depends on whether they are willing to look for it and who lost the phone.

If any leader or foreigner traveling to China loses his mobile phone, the technical department can quickly solve the case with a quick check, without any difficulty at all.

However, these are all mobile phones that are legally produced and have legal procedures.

Copycat phones won’t work.

Either there is no IMEI code, or hundreds of thousands or millions of mobile phones share the same IMEI code, which makes it very difficult to check.

The reason why counterfeit phones don’t apply for regular IMEI codes is because it is very expensive.

If you apply for a number segment with 100 million codes internationally, it costs 400 US dollars, which is not much. However, if you want to use it domestically after applying, you have to apply for other identification codes, and you also need to go through the approval, filing and various procedures of official agencies.

It's these processes that are troublesome.

The strength of copycat phone manufacturers is very weak. If they cannot get the license anytime soon, they might as well not do it. Instead of saving money, they might as well lower the price to be more competitive.

Zhuang Xiangrong went on to say: “Not only in China, but India is also doing this now!”

"Ok?"

Zhou Buqi's interest suddenly grew.

Because Estar is planning to conquer India, we need to understand the situation!