2degrees ‘months’ from joining stolen cellphone pact

Is the number up for cellphone thieves?

Not for a while.

Telecommunications engineer and Geekzone blogger Steve Biddle says 2degrees has inadvertently created a black market for stolen phones.

He says that every handset has a unique International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. This provides a mechanism for a phone company to block a stolen phone.

Telecom and Vodafone use IMEI to block lost or stolen phones on their own networks.

And, because they share IMEI data, they can block phones from being used on each other’s network, too.

2degrees is not blocking lost or stolen phones. Citing numerous Greekzone message threads (including here and here), plus Vodafone forum comments, Mr Biddle says this makes it the network of choice for phone thieves – or at least they advertise a stolen handset on Trade Me as working with 2degrees, knowing that it will be blocked if a buyer tries to use it on Telecom or 2degrees.

Most smartphones, like Apple's iPhone or Android's like Mr Biddle's Samsung Galaxy S3, will happily work on all three networks in normal circumstances.

Help is at hand, to a fashion.

“We are in the process of installing the technology that gives us [blocking] capability,” a 2degrees spokeswoman told NBR ONLINE.

“We are in testing phase for this at the moment and expect to be able to offer it to our customers very shortly.”

From there it gets hairier.

“In terms of an industry-wide blocking solution with Telecom and Vodafone, yes, we are in discussions with them to develop something that will enable us to share information and block phones from all networks in the future.

"However, this is nowhere near ready yet.”

Pressed, the spokeswoman said it would be months before industry-wide blocking could be implemented.

Telecom and Vodafone were being co-operative. Technical issues were the hold-up.

Although 2degrees customers can't achieve the satisfaction of knowing their lost phone is blocked from 2degrees and other networks. But services like Apple's Find my Phone (for an iPhone used with iCloud) at least let give them a shot at finding a misplaced handset. I found Find my Phone reasonable accurate. The red X is my actual location, at NBR Towers. Click image to enlarge. Google Latitude is an alternative. 

In the meantime, there are a number of DIY protection measures 2degrees (and other network) customers can employ.

iPhone owners can employ iCloud's Find My Phone feature, which I found pretty accurate.

Telecom acting CEO Chris Quin used the earlier Mobile Me service to successfully track down an iPhone thief (who handed back the handset without any drama) last year.

Read Steve Biddle's IMEI explainer here.