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Glossary

IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) in 3GPP: meaning and where it is specified

Published 2026-10-16Updated 2026-10-16

At a glance

Term
IMEI
Stands for
International Mobile Equipment Identity
Defined in
3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4
Used in
TS 25.423, TS 29.171, TS 29.272

In plain words

The glossary expands IMEI as "International Mobile Equipment Identity", giving the term’s full name. TS 29.272 specifies that the IMEI AVP is of type UTF8String, while TS 29.171 says its parameter identifies the IMEI of the target UE. TS 25.423 describes IMEI as a permanent UE Equipment Identity.

Source: 3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/21_series/21.905/21905-j20.zip

Sources

  1. 3GPP TR 21.905 V19.2.0, clause 4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/21_series/21.905/21905-j20.zip
  2. 3GPP TS 29.272 V19.6.0, clause 7.3.4. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/29_series/29.272/29272-j60.zip
  3. 3GPP TS 29.171 V15.5.1, clause 7.4.11. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/29_series/29.171/29171-f51.zip
  4. 3GPP TS 25.423 V19.0.0, clause 9.2.1.30T. © 3GPP Organizational Partners (ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA, TTC). Official text: https://www.3gpp.org/ftp/Specs/archive/25_series/25.423/25423-j00.zip

How this page was made

The facts box comes straight from the 3GPP TDoc list and specification archive as indexed by 3GPP Scout. An AI model (GPT-6 Luna) wrote the paragraph and named the source of each sentence. Code checked every quote word for word against the stored source text and every number against the cited source. A second AI model from another company (Claude Opus 5.5) reviewed the paragraph against the same sources. The 3GPP documents themselves govern.