Posted in: Mobile phones, Mobile Services, Network Operators

US database for stolen phones is now live, to join the international blacklist soon

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The Wireless Association (CTIA) has announced the US database for stolen phones is now up and running. In case a phone gets in there it won’t be allowed to connect to any of the US networks.

The participating carriers in the database are AT&T, Cellcom, Nex-Tech Wireless, Sprint, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless. They already deployed their IMEI databases of stolen phones and the merge should be completed within a year.

Part of the merged database is already live and when a phone pops in there – it will never get service from any of those networks. In the efforts of drying the stolen phones market this database will soon join the GSMA Global IMEI database and its blacklist. That way no phone stolen stateside will work overseas and vice versa.

This surely won’t stop the phone thefts, but will make things a lot tougher for the thieves and hopefully most of them will drop this “business” eventually.

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