In the U.S., AT&T, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, and T-Mobile USA — the nation’s four largest carriers representing 90% of America’s wireless subscribers — have banded together with the federal government’s FCC and police departments around the country to develop a nationwide database utilizing unique smartphone identification numbers (IMEIs). The wireless carriers will build and support their own separate databases, expected to be up and running inside the next 6 months. Within 18 months, the separate carrier databases will be merged to form a national database used to block stolen devices from being altered to run on another carrier’s network.
Carriers in the USA will go beyond deactivating SIM cards that store a user’s account information and will deactivate the device itself as well, using the phone’s unique identification number, likely an IMEI, MEID or ESN number.
It’s just too easy for a thief to steal a phone and sell it on the black market
“It’s just too easy for a thief to steal a phone and sell it on the black market,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said. “This program will make it a lot harder to do that. And the police departments we are working with tell us that it will significantly deter this kind of theft.”
If the IMEI number is what the American companies will use, one has to wonder why it will take 18 months for this to go into effect when the GSMA already maintains a unique IMEI Database (IMEI DB) system, which is a global central database containing basic information on serial number (IMEI) ranges of millions of mobile devices (e.g. mobile phones, laptop data cards, etc.) that are in use across the world’s mobile networks. The GSMA even mentioned that their database could be used for this specific reason:
As GSM and 3G devices have become more sophisticated and more expensive, they are also unfortunately more attractive to thieves recent years have seen an increased need for the IMEI DB to be used as a tool to combat handset theft. Many mobile network operators have responded to the problem of handset theft by deploying EIRs in their networks and connecting them to the IMEI DB. The engagement of governments and law enforcement agencies with the network operator community continues in a number of markets where handset theft is perceived to be a problem and the GSM Association strongly encourages use of the IMEI DB as a platform to exchange stolen handset data and it welcomes all of its members to connect to the system.
Oh well. If it makes it more difficult for thieves to get away with stealing our beloved iPhones, Androids, Windows Phones, and BlackBerrys, and keeping them on our international GSM SIM services where they belong, an 18-month wait is a small price to pay.
No word yet on whether any of the global carriers are already or will be participating in these blacklisting measures.
Fierce Wireless, TmoNews, GSMA