New system to track mobile phone theft, illegal phones
Sri Lanka Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) is to establish an Equipment Identity Register (EIR) to control access to mobile networks, deter mobile phone theft and fraud as well as sale of illegal handsets, a top official of the TRC said. Anusha Palpita, Director General of the TRC told the Business Times that the new system enables the regulatory authority to have advanced administrative and customer management capabilities allowing mobile service providers to use the EIR to perform checks and block any blacklisted mobile handset or equipment.
He revealed that EIR also allows such operators to provide a range of extended services to improve user experience and increase revenue. They will also be able to use the EIR to lock subsidised handsets/equipment to specific SIM cards to ensure maintenance of subscriber contract agreements, he added. Operators can detect and, if they choose, block cloned devices or SIM cards to eliminate fraud on their network, he disclosed.
The EIR can also be used to detect roaming subscribers from foreign networks and trigger pre-determined welcome roamer messages, encouraging network use and valuable revenue streams, Mr.Palpita said. According to research data, 35 per cent of handsets sold in the country could have more than one network connected (multi-subscriber identity module).
Around 5.4 per cent or 110,000 units out of 2.03 million were smart phones. By end 2011, Sri Lanka, a country of 20 million people had 18.3 million mobile subscribers which grew 6.1 percent from a year earlier. Amid competition, price conscious mobile users were buying more than one package, the data shows.
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