Today, cell phones are perhaps the truly essential personal and professional item for everyone around the world. As the international demand for cell phones continues to grow, there is also a steady growth in the technical and legal requirements for the manufacturing industry of these devices. According to national and international laws, each cell phone must be associated with a specific code number, called anIMEI number, marked on the body of the cell phone itself
IMEI stands for International Mobile Equipment Identity, something very similar to a phone's fingerprint: it is a 15-digit number unique to each device. Phone carriers and manufacturers share IMEI numbers to enable tracking of smartphones that could be stolen or used to commit crimes. The IMEI code must be permanently marked on the back of each cell phone or on other components of the device itself, such as batteries. The IMEI is used by local or international police to trace any cell phone back to the cell tower used at the time a call is made, even if a different SIM card is used.
In addition to being marked on the cover or components, it can also be displayed on the screen on most phones by entering the MMI supplementary service code on the keypad or along with other system information in the settings menu on smartphone operating systems. All of these markings are made with special Laser systems that allow very very small legible characters to be marked.
