Say Goodbye to Non-PTA Phones as Govt Initiates Crackdown Against Patched Devices

Mobile phone smuggling and patch approvals incur billions of rupees in losses to the national exchequer each year. In recent times, there has been a steep increase in mobile phone smuggling owing to increasing import taxes and foreign exchange rates.

How are the smuggled phones being PTA-approved?

The smuggled smartphones are being PTA-approved through illegal methods such as CPID (consumer product identification), IMEI repair, and patch approvals.

Government to Initiate Crack Down:

Consequently, the government of Pakistan has planned to take action against smugglers and has shortlisted hundreds of smugglers and shops involved in patching smartphones. The national telecom regulator, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), will also be starting a crackdown against a famous paid website (cpidserver.com) that offers CPID approval services around the globe.

What is CPID/Patch Approval?

CPID approvals change the IMEI number of a smartphone via software that is linked to a remote paid server. In comparison to the PTA tax, it is a pretty cheap method to get PTA approval for your smartphone. In simple words, the method substitutes the IMEI number of a smartphone with that of an older device that is already PTA. It implies that a Google Pixel phone could be registered as a Samsung J5.

CPID approval enables the device’s original firmware without having to root the device, which means that you can update your smartphone. On the other hand, patch approvals encompass similar techniques, except the phone remains limited to a single software patch, thus blocking the user from updating their phone.

Also read:

Google Play Store Removes 111 Fraudulent Micro Loan Apps on PTA’s Request