Canada’s mobile operators have teamed-up to launch a national blacklist of wireless devices that have been reported as lost or stolen.
Effective immediately, the networks will rely on the phones’ IMEI serial numbers to checked against a list of stolen handsets, and eventually ban the use of such phones on their networks. Aside from the lost/stolen Canadian devices, the mentioned blacklist will also include phones from the U.S. that are connected to the GSMA IMEI database.
While we praise this effort, we have to add that this measure was imposed by the telecoms regulator, rather than networks themselves.
Still, Chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) Jean-Pierre Blais is happy about this, saying that the Commission is “pleased to see that the members of the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) met their commitment to join the GSM Association and use the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) database before the September 30, 2013 deadline.”
I wonder whether carriers would ever do this without the government intervention. What do you think?
[Image from BluesqareTips]