Speaking during a seminar with
journalists here, TCRA Director General Dr Ally Simba urged customers to
examine handsets before they buy them to find out whether the gadgets
are genuine or not. He said massive public awareness has been carried
out countrywide and recorded success ahead of the exercise to switch-off
bogus mobile phone handsets on June 16, this year.
“When we started the awareness campaign
in December last year almost 30 per cent of the devices in the market
were fake, but the rate has decreased to 18 per cent by February, this
year,” Dr Simba said.
The regulator is still making a
follow-up of understanding of the general public ahead of the
switch-off. He added that the exercise was part of the Central Equipment
Identity Register (CEIR) that seeks to register International Mobile
Equipment Identity (IMEI) for communication handsets.
The system aims at curbing theft of the
gadgets by notifying the authority to block the devices when stolen or
lost. “When you purchase a handset you should ask for a receipt and a
warrant of not less than 12 months.
Keep the receipt for at least three
months after which if the handset is in use it will have all data stores
to verify ownership,” Dr Simba explained.
Tanzania Bureau of Standards Public Relations Officer Roida Andusamile blamed fake mobile handsets on dishonest traders.
A legal officer with the Fair
Competition Commission (FCC), Hadija Ngasonga, said the commission has
been conducting joint inspections with genuine producers and importers
of the gadgets to impound fake mobile handsets.
She cited an inspection around the busy
Kariakoo trading area in Dar es Salaam in which fake mobile phones worth
80m/- were impounded.
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