400.000 Cellular Phone
Customers Unprotected
Against Theft
Why can't Instituto
Costarricense de
Electricidad (ICE)
protect its customers
when a cellular phone is
lost or stolen? Well, it
can and it does, but not
for all cellular phones.
Every cellular telephone
is equipped with an
International Mobile
Equipment Identity or
IMEI, a number unique to
every GSM and UMTS and
iDEN mobile phone as
well as some satellite
phones.
The IMEI number is used
by the GSM network to
identify valid devices
and therefore can be
used to stop a stolen
phone from accessing the
network. For example, if
a mobile phone is
stolen, the owner can
call his or her network
provider and instruct
them to "ban" the phone
using its IMEI number.
This renders the phone
useless, regardless of
whether the phone's SIM
is changed.
In Costa Rica,
blocking of the IMEI is
only available on GSM
cellular phones of the
the 900.000 ICE
customers connected to
Ericsson network,
leaving the 400.000 ICE
customers connected to
the Alcatel network
unprotected.
Although ICE asks for
the registration of the
IMEI when connecting a
cellular phone to the
Alcatel network, the
protection is not
available on that
network because ICE
purchased that network
without the service.
This alone some 20.000
cellular phones have
been reported stolen and
in some cases resulting
in deaths at the hands
of thieves using extreme
violence during the
robbery.
Many countries have
acknowledged the use of
the IMEI in reducing the
effect of mobile phone
theft. For example, in
the United Kingdom,
under the Mobile
Telephones
(Re-programming) Act,
changing the IMEI of a
phone, or possessing
equipment that can
change it, is considered
an offence under some
circumstances.
When mobile equipment is
stolen or lost, the
operator or owner will
typically contact the
Central Equipment
Identity Register (CEIR),
which blacklists the
device in all operator
switches so that it
will, in effect, become
unusable, making theft
of mobile equipment a
useless business.
The IMEI number is not
supposed to be easy to
change, making the CEIR
blacklisting effective.
However, this is not
always the case: a
phone's IMEI may be easy
to change with special
tools and some operators
may even flatly ignore
the CEIR blacklist.
Adolfo Arias, director
of the División de
Servicios del ICE, says
the state institution is
looking for a solution,
but it doesn't come
cheap. To protect the
400.000 customers using
the Alcatel network, ICE
would have to purchase
an add on to the system
at at a cost of
us$300.000, that if
purchased, would be
working by the end of
this year.
For now, ICE recommends
its customers to note
the IMEI of their
cellular phone and in
the case it is stolen,
not only to report the
loss of the unit, but to
specify the IMEI to an
ICE agent, who can then
add it manually to the
CEIR list.
"The attitude of
customers is very
important ", said Arias.
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