Beating the mobile phone thieves: 'Together we are strong'

Today saw the mobile network operators go live with a shared database that should make life more difficult for handset thieves.

In the past, if you had your phone nicked, you'd report it to your operator, who would ensure your old handset was blocked from being used again.

But they could only enforce this block on their own network: there was nothing to stop the thieves from using the phone on another network, as the operators didn't have access to each other's data.

This was clearly a massive issue - and not one with an easy solution.

Every phone comes with what's known as an IMEI number, the identifying tag used to enforce such bans.

You'd think it was easy for all the operators to get together, share a database and make sure a block on one network meant a block on all the networks.

Sadly, while that's fine in principle, it's problematic in practice. BT Cellnet, now O2, and Vodafone pointed out that it's fairly common for more than one phone to have the same IMEI number. Bar one, you bar them all. How would you like it if you woke up one day to find you couldn't use your mobile any more because someone with a phone bearing the same IMEI number as yours had had theirs stolen?

The two operators got a bit of bad press for their reluctance to unite with their rivals to fight crime, with some sneering types alleging that they didn't want to spend the money needed to create a shared database. However true that may have been, you can see their point. But no one came up with a more elegant alternative.

Fortunately, however, following some concerted pressure from police, government (and the iffy headlines), the reluctant two eventually decided to join the party, which has culminated in today's announcement. It's taken around a year to get to this point, but better late than never.

The scheme may not be perfect, but it's bound to help. Mobile phone theft is an increasing menace, so if you do find that your phone is wrongly barred, remember it's all in a good cause.

And today's news also proves that industry, police and government can work together for the common good. They need to speed up a bit, but credit where credit's due. Let's hope the shared database really does do some good.