|
|
|
Telcos act over stolen mobiles
13 Feb 2002
All mobile phone companies and law enforcement agencies have agreed to a plan to ban lost and stolen mobiles from the networks - though it may be several months before the plan is implemented.
The carriers will use the IMEI (International Mobile Equipment Identity) code built into every handset to identify and blacklist stolen phones. The carriers have been reluctant to block IMEI numbers in the past as they claim that these numbers are not unique, meaning that many users would have their mobiles blocked unjustifiably. The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association’s Ross Monaghan said "We don't want to get to a point where legitimate users are cut off the network.”
However Reg Robertson disagrees. He was contracted by AMTA 18 months ago to create the Find A Phone database which people could subscribe to to track their phones if lost or stolen. Robertson has 300,000 IMEI numbers in his database - and not one of them is a duplicate. He’s no longer taking subscriptions, due to what he sees as lack of co-operation from the carriers. Read more about the Find A Phone service.
AMTA estimates that as many as 2,000 mobiles are lost or stolen every week and around 85% of these are reconnected to different networks, generating huge revenue for the phone companies.
Sydney Morning Herald Online, 13/2/02.
|
|
