Handsets: Who Moved My Mobile?

Bharat, a CDMA subscriber, whose phone was stolen a few months back, ran
pillar to post to get the service deactivated but in vain. Despite having all
the required documents including an FIR, and in know of the person who had
stolen it, Bharat was a harassed lot. The person, who had allegedly stolen the
phone was his business rival, and successfully snatched away the latter's
clientele. Meanwhile, Bharat struggled to prove his identity to the service
provider, and lost all hopes of getting the connection deactivated let alone
retrieving his number.

This is not an isolated case. Several subscribers of both GSM and CDMA face
similar anguish after losing their handsets, and their pleas for grievance
redressal fall only on deaf ears.

Mobile
phone theft is a rapidly growing menace the world over. According to a TRAI
consultation paper, in some countries up to 330,000 mobiles are stolen per year.
Statistics show that in Singapore mobile theft shot up 65 percent between
Jan-May 2005. The stolen mobile phones are widely used in petty crimes, and
could have serious security implications.

As the telecom industry is growing in leaps and bounds, the competition among
the service providers is heating up everyday. With mobile connections now
available at affordable rates, price of mobile handsets is the only inhibiting
factor at the lower end of the market. Thus, stolen mobiles offer a cheap
alternative that leads to a booming grey market. This in turn hampers not only
the interest of the consumers but also the mobile industry. The seriousness of
the issue can be gauged by the fact that there is an international market of
stolen mobile phones and it's a widely believed notion that these phones are
possibly being exported. According to an estimate, more than a million
subscribers in India are using handsets from the grey market, most of which are
stolen. Thus a strong anti-mobile theft policy is the need of the hour.

The Global Landscape

All over the world, efforts are being made to solve this problem at the
industry as well as government level. In India, the TRAI released a preliminary
consultation paper in January 2004 to address the issue but the cause saw no
further action.

In other parts of the world such as Europe and Australia companies as well as
governments are taking steps in search of viable solutions. In UK, the Mobile
Phones Reprogramming Act 2002 has been enacted to curb reprogramming of handsets
as it makes the reuse of stolen handsets possible while making it difficult to
identify them.

"Immobilise" is another anti mobile theft campaign being run by the
UK operators in which they track the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)
numbers of stolen phones to a central database and block calls to those handsets
across all the national networks.

Australian Mobile Telecommunication Association (AMTA) is also using a new
anti theft technology wherein lost and stolen mobile phones become virtually
redundant, because once reported missing they cannot be connected to any network
in Australia.

The GSM Association is leading a global effort in collaboration with mobile
phone operators and handset makers to control mobile phone thefts. Leading
telecom companies such as Vodafone Group PLC, Orange SA and T-mobile Deutschland
AG are also participating in this endeavor where more than 25 global operators
have agreed to record IMEI numbers of stolen mobiles. This database is stored in
a unique computer called Central Equipment Identify Register (CEIR) in Dublin
Ireland. The CEIR has a white list containing all the IMEI numbers of mobiles
being used in the GSM network and a black list having the IMEI of stolen
mobiles. The operators can access these lists any time giving them the correct
status of each handset and helping them block stolen mobile.

The Indian Silence

In India, no such effort has been made so far either by the service
providers, mobile manufacturers or the government, despite TRAI's consultation
paper on the issue. TRAI Advisor QoS, Sudhir Gupta, said "we had a meeting
with service providers to discuss the matter. Although a consensus was arrived
at on the need for a security system in place, but the service providers were
not ready to invest in such a system." Unlike other countries, in India
there's no tie up between the manufacturers and the service providers on
bundling of handsets and connection as a single package deal. The service
providers do not have any stake in the handsets, therefore they have no concern
with regard to the theft of the handsets. Their only role is the renewal of
connection by blocking the stolen SIM and issuing a new one. Thus, all the
security measures are preventive in nature such as phone locking, PIN number
etc. There's no provision for retrieving or blocking stolen mobile phones. In
GSM technology, IMEI number blocking has been introduced in India but the
information is limited to the service providers.

The situation in the case of CDMA mobiles is worse. Most of such phones do
not have SIM cards and can be traced only if used in the same network. The
programming can be changed very easily and it can be activated for a different
service. Although, in some handsets reprogramming is not possible which renders
the mobile useless, leaving the victim clueless and the thief disappointed.

The global CDMA subscriber market is expected to touch the 2.3 billion mark
by 2009. Realizing this, the CDMA operators in India are trying to find a
solution to curb CDMA mobile theft. According to Dilip Sahay, technical advisor,
Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, "leading CDMA
operators are trying to set up a central database consisting of the Electronic
Serial Numbers (ESN) of all the CDMA mobiles in all the networks so that when
one is reported stolen from any network, it is immediately marked in the
database alerting all the operators. But this is still at an idea stage."

Cellular Operators Association of India, director general, T.V. Ramchandran,
didn't comment on the issue.

Initiatives on the Anvil

Efforts need to be made by the parties concerned, individually and in
cooperation with each other. Manufacturers, network operators and government
agencies all have an integral role to play, if this problem is to be controlled
and eliminated. A well-defined comprehensive policy is needed and all the
parties are important for effective implementation of this policy.

There is a need to create a database of stolen phones that are to be tracked.
No authentic data is available in India regarding the number of mobiles stolen
in a particular year. This data can then be used to create a larger database for
cross-country efforts. This would help block the stolen phones from being used
across the globe.

Reprogramming is another way a stolen mobile can be made to work again.
Reprogrammed cell phones are difficult to be identified as their IMEI is
altered. The manufacturers should develop a tamper proof IMEI system and the
government should take an initiative to curb the re-use of stolen mobiles
through an anti- reprogramming legislation. The software to re-programme mobile
phones is available free on the Internet. Moreover, reprogramming is carried out
freely in Gaffar Market in Delhi and some other places in India. This reiterates
the need of a joint action by the operators and manufacturers is needed to
device a strategy for enhancing future handset security.

The issue of mobile phone theft needs to be addressed immediately and through
a combined effort at a global scale. For this, steps have to be taken in India
first. With more than 50 million mobile subscribers, mobile theft poses a
potential threat to Indian service providers, manufacturers and the consumers.
An optimum mix of technical solution, active cooperation of the local police/law
enforcement agencies, and an effective campaign to educate the public mobile
handset users is required for the solution to be effective. With the world
gearing up to combat the problem, it's high time that Indian operators take
heed and start working towards the same goal.

By our reporter vadmail@cybermedia.co.in