As the popularity of smartphones have skyrocketed in recent years so too have the incidents of theft associated with the often pricey communications devices. To address this rise in illegal activity, the Federal Communications Commission and a group of the nation's leading wireless carriers have agreed to create a cell phone database to combat mobile phone theft.
The group is scheduled to make a formal announcement later today. According to the Wall Street Journal, the database will track mobile phones that are reported stolen or lost and deny voice or data service to those devices. So far, the database effort includes Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Sprint.
Julius Genachowski, chairman of the FCC, said, "New technologies create new risks. We wanted to find a way to reduce the value of stolen smartphones." In large cities like New York and San Francisco, accounts of having one's smartphone snatched on the street are not uncommon. Often those phones find their way to a third party through sales on the black market or even through websites like Craigslist. The mobile phone database would likely put a significant dent in the ability of anyone in possession of stolen phones to profit from their ill-gotten gains.
The entire effort was given an extra kick-start earlier this year when the Major Cities Chiefs Association, a group of 70 police chiefs from major cities around the U.S., crafted a document that called for the FCC to enact changes that would address the issue of stolen mobile phone usage. The various carriers will reportedly deploy their own separate databases over the course of the next six months, with plans to merge the databases into one large pool within a year. Also, regional carriers will be encouraged to join the database effort within the next two years.
The formal announcement kicks off at 10am today in Washington, D.C. It will be broadcast live on www.fcc.gov/live.
