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Wireless carriers in the U.S. are cooperating with the FederalCommunications Commission to assemble a joint database of stolenmobile phones in hopes of curbing theft of smartphones such asApple's iPhone. The four largest carriers in the U.S. have all agreed toparticipate in the new database, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday . Verizon and Sprint already block stolen phones from beingreactivated, while AT&T and T-Mobile do not. Wireless operators will maintain the database and prevent phoneslisted as stolen from activating voice or data service. The effortsare intended to serve as a deterrent to potential criminals byreducing the resale value of stolen devices. iPads and othertablets with cellular networking technology will also be added tothe database. "We wanted to find a way to reduce the value of stolensmartphones," said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. The specifics of the database are still under discussion, but a"broad outline" has been agreed upon, the Journal noted. The unique serial numbers of devices would be used to keeptrack of stolen phones. Wireless operators have also agreed topromote the use of device passcodes to reduce theft. Carriers plan to create their own databases in the next six monthsand integrate them over the course of 12 months. A person familiarwith the initiative told the publication that regional carrierswill likely join the database within the next two years. With high-value smartphones becoming commonplace among conusmers,law-enforcement officials have become increasingly vocal aboutcellphone theft in recent years. Cellphone-related robberies inWashington D.C. have increased 54 percent since 2007, the year theoriginal iPhone was released. An internal New York PoliceDepartment document reportedly indicated that 81 percent of the26,000 electronics theft incidents that took place during the first10 months of 2011 involved mobile phones. According to the report, the Major Cities Chiefs Association, whichrepresents 70 police chiefs from large U.S. and Canadian cities,called on the FCC to put pressure on carriers to disable stolenphones. Police have even resorted to sting operations to crack down onvendors purchasing stolen devices. An NYPD sting last December that offered "stolen" Apple devices to local merchants netted 141arrests. Database strategies in the U.K. and Australia appear to havereduced theft in those countries. The number of cellphone-relatedcrimes in London stood at 8,000 per month last fiscal year, downfrom 10,000 per month in 2004, even as the number of handsetsalmost doubled over the period. For its part, Apple has also worked to build theft deterrents intoits devices. In 2009, the company launched a Find My iPhone service that helps users track, lock and wipedevices that have been lost or stolen. Also in 2009, a patentapplication surfaced for an "acceleration-based theft detectionsystem" that would sound an alarm if an accelerometer picked up fast movement of the device that waslikely to be a theft. I am an expert from mosaics-tile.com, while we provides the quality product, such as Stone Glass Mosaic Tile , China Stone Mosaic Tile, Ceramic Mosaic Tiles,and more.
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