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US Carriers Finally Doing Something About Cellphone Theft

Posted by timothy on from the att-still-has-my-resentment dept.

New submitter zarmanto writes "In a move that is so long overdue that it boggles the mind, the FCC and the four largest cellular providers in the U.S. state that they will be joining forces to combat cell phone theft. From the article: 'Over the next six months, each of the four operators is expected to put in place a program to disable phones reported as stolen and within 18 months the FCC plans to help merge them into a central database in order to prevent a phone from being used on another carrier's network.'"

4 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Fun prank of the week! by Kenja · · Score: 5, Funny

    Report your friends phone as stolen! Hilarity ensues.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:Fun prank of the week! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Sadly, I expect this will become one of the many popular ways to upset an ex-spouse

    2. Re:Fun prank of the week! by icebike · · Score: 5, Informative

      This just doesn't happen. Look, people, the vast majority of carriers in the world already to this, and they have no such problem.

      There are checks and balances. Some require a police report, others simply require you to appear in person, show your ID and match it to your account credentials.

      Contrary to popular opinion, this scheme wasn't dreamed up by 7th graders, Its built into the GSM spec and widely used.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    3. Re:Fun prank of the week! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Report your friends phone as stolen! Hilarity ensues.

      I find it funny that i see this every time, this is mentioned. In the UK this has been available for as long as i have been using some form of mobile phone (about 10 years). And when you block a phone here you don't use the phone number its the IMEI Number that belongs to your handset...which is a lot harder to just get off your friend and then have blocked.

      Also in this country on top of that if its a contract phone, at least on the network im on (T-mobile), i had to do the same authentication that you normally have to perform to get into your account. This is also reversible if you are on contract if you recover the phone it can be unblocked, but only by the account holder.