Government, telecoms ramp up work to halt cell phone thefts

Santo Domingo.- The GSMAssociation, the Dominican Telecom Institute (Indotel) and the telecoms Claro,Orange and Viva on Wednesday agreed to deny the connection of stolen equipment throughthe International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) to block stolen equipmentreported in other networks.

The announcementcomes months after a Presidency executive order required suspension of the linesfor stolen cell phones called “toad,” issued September 2014.

The measure, whichsought to eliminate toad phones to prevent crimes with unregistered lines and cellthefts, now has the support of all telecoms to detect them, and preventactivation.

According to the GSMADominican Republic´s total mobile connections reached 10.6 million in June 2015,noting that the cell phone is still the main way for citizens to access theInternet.

Also revealed duringthe activity held at Indotel was the GSMA´s stolen equipment database or globalblacklist, currently present in 37 countries which share information on stolenmobiles daily.