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| MOVES TO STOP PHONE THEFTS |
10/27/2006 |
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GOOD news for mobile phone owners. The country’s service providers have started installing devices capable of disabling lost or stolen mobile phones, to beat the February 2007 deadline given by the National Communications Authority (NCA) for them to have such a system in place.
Following the increased rate of mobile phone stealing, three months ago, the NCA gave the service providers up to February next year to get the devices installed.
When operational, stolen or lost, mobile phones handsets can be disabled by the owner deactivating the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card and the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) as well as the serial number of the phone.
Ghana Telecommunications Limited, operators of the Onetouch network, say they have already got the phone distraction system in place and will activate it when other service provides are ready with theirs.
Ruth Maafo of the GT Corporate Affairs Departments told the Times that the company had since the inception of its mobile service operation, installed the system but had it deactivated because some service providers do not have them and those who have are not using them.
Ms. Maafo said although Onetouch could deactivate a stolen or lost handset with its system, the phone could easily be reactivated and used on another network.
"But when all the networks activate their systems, it will be impossible for handset a disabled by one network to be reactivated by another," she noted.
Times investigations at the other networks have revealed that they are seriously working towards installing the systems. The managements of Tigo, Areeba and Kasapa are half way through their installation processes.
investigations at the other networks have revealed that they are seriously working towards installing the systems. The managements of Tigo, Areeba and Kasapa are half way through their installation processes.
The mode of operations for the systems is being developed by a committee comprising representatives of the NCA and service providers.
At present, it is only the card that can be deactivated by the service provider.
However, when all service providers have installed their deactivation systems, mobile phone users would only have to know their serial numbers for a lost or stolen mobile phone to be deactivated.
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