CPLC Karachi the Only user of Cell Phones IMEI system

PTA, CPLC anti-cell phone theft system

Need to train police for drive�s success By Imran Ayub Karachi Telecom authorities feel that the lack of proper training among policemen, who register complaints against cell phone snatching in the city, has seriously impaired the success of the campaign against such crimes. In a recent report, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has said that a system designed jointly by the telecom regulator and the Citizen Police Liaison Committee (CPLC) to check cell phone snatching through IMEI facility (international mobile equipment identity) has met with limited success. But the PTA claims that the fault lies not with the system but the manner in which it is being implemented. �There is a need to train the police helpline 15 in noting down the complaints and sending these details to the central office at Karachi,� noted the PTA�s Telecom Quarterly Review 2007 issued recently. �Presently, there is a lot of rush on PTA�s and CPLC�s numbers. It is expected that it would decrease with the passage of time,� the report added. The report said there was a need for more help line numbers, which could be reached by the citizens to react promptly and lodge complaints against cell phone snatching and theft. �All stolen and snatched handsets reported to PTA and CPLC so far have been placed in a database,� said the report. However there are complaints that phones that are snatched are reused despite the fact that the PTA claims that this is not the case. The PTA and CPLC in September 2006 amidst much fanfare launched the campaign, which facilitates the citizen in lodging complaints against cell phone snatching and thefts through revealing the IMEI number. The rationale behind this drive is that the IMEI number of the phone would be immobilized, making it unusable to anyone else. Growing concerns against street crime pushed the authorities to move in this regard. There has been a marked rise in the theft of mobile phones, particularly in Karachi, and there are fears that the stolen phones end up in markets across the city where they are resold. Some telecom experts say that the market for stolen phones, sold as �reconditioned models� is larger than that of new phones in the city. The figures compiled by the provincial institution suggest that a total of 44,388 cell phones were snatched or stolen in 2006 only. Such thefts and snatchings were recorded at 27,764 in 2005, suggesting a 60 per cent increase in a single year. However, the PTA claims the system designed to curb the crime would give better results by the year end. �So far, approximately 40,000 mobile handsets have been made dysfunctional during the last five months of the IMEI system launch,� said the quarterly report. At this, there are some who say that the phones made dysfunctional are easily reused after some re-engineering at local shops in the city. The report has said that PTA and CPLC offices in Karachi had been registering three hundred complaints daily since the launch of the IMEI system in October 2006 for the blockage of snatched and stolen mobile phones. �The response of the public and related organisations is quite encouraging,� said the PTA, adding that its regional office in Karachi had been declared as the central body of the network formed for the purpose of coordinated efforts in implementing the IMEI programme. The PTA claims, however, need to be seen in a more realistic perspective. More than four thousand cell phones were taken away in the city during February 2007 alone, according to official data. The data released by local police authorities marked Gulshan-e-Iqbal as a hotspot for criminals, where managed to snatch 243 sets one month. Despite the lower than expected results, the Karachi metropolis remains the only city across Pakistan which possesses an anti cell phone theft system, and the telecom regrets so far no other city appears interested in devising such a policy to discourage cell phone snatching. �Except CPLC at Karachi, no other law enforcement agency in the rest of the country, like CPLC is other cities and Police 15 etc. is currently accepting complaints,� added the PTA report.