Even as the government wants the operators to work sincerely on the issue of connections with invalid IMEI numbers, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) wants the government to consider a software capable of identifying whether the handset has genuine IMEI number or not.

COAI wants the government to consider such software instead of imposing penalty as proposed by the government.

COAI says a software is available which when implemented will provide the device with unique numbers. The security agencies though are against such a software as they reason that subscribers may change their IMEI numbers using the software.

The issue of illegal IMEI handsets assumes importance in wake of likely use of these handsets by anti-social elements including terrorists.