The Nationwide Stolen Smartphone Database Has Been Completed
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Last year, the FCC and the Big Four carriers announced that they were developing a national lost-and-stolen phone registry. Now, the wireless industry says that the database is complete. To refresh your memory, last year we explained the point of the new initiative: “The database, which will be maintained by each carrier, will track all phones reported stolen and remotely deny them voice and data service. Carriers plan to track the individual phones with serial numbers associated with each device. Verizon and Sprint—both of which employ CDMA networks—already have the ability to remotely kill a pilfered phone and deny their reactivation. T-Mobile and AT&T—which run on GSM and rely on easily-swappable SIM cards—do not. The later two are reportedly working include extra checks to ensure that both the phone and the SIM card are legit.”
