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Illegal
sales and connections thrive in major mobile racket
The Telecom Regulatory Commission, which is expected to monitor the activities of the mobile phone operators, is also not enforcing the requirement. With Sri Lanka coming second in South Asia in terms of mobile- phone population ratio, the smuggling racket has deprived the government of revenue in the form of taxes. Customs said thousands of phones were being smuggled from countries such as Singapore and Dubai inspite of the government bringing down the tax from 27% to 3% through the last budget. Registration of a mobile phone under a service provider in Sri Lanka is required to obtain a connection, whether it was genuinely purchased, smuggled or robbed. But subscribers say smuggled or robbed phones could be detected if the service providers insist that those seeking connection must produce the purchase receipt or an owner transfership letter. One major loophole in the whole process is that the three main service providers, Dialog GSM, Mobitel and Celltel, do not have a common database system to identify any previous service provider of a mobile phone. Mobitel's Chief Marketing Manager Kapila Chandrasekara said there was no common database to enable them to blacklist a phone that was possibly smuggled or robbed. He said they would blacklist a phone if a subscriber informed them that his or her phone had been robbed or lost. Dialog GSM General Manager Nushad Perera said they had a list of phones issued by Dialog and could detect any stolen one. But they could not do it if the phones were from other companies. But many subscribers say that some service providers are not unduly cautious in double checking on the genuineness of the phone brought to them for a connection. The course of action followed by a mobile phone subscriber who was robbed of his phone or lost it, is to inform the relevant service provider to disconnect the link and also to make a complaint to police. Anyone who robbed or found the phone could remove the existing SIM card given by one service provider and replace it with another SIM card given by another provider. Subscribers say service providers are ethically bound not to provide a phone connection to mobile phones that had already obtained a connection from another provider. Providing more and more connections would of course mean more business for the providers. But they should give serious thought to working out a common database or agreeing on common ethics, subscribers say. While ordinary subscribers are duped in this phoney trade, many businessmen have worked out the fine art of dealing with the entire trade of mobile phones, from the point of buying them to changing their inside data. Once phones are smuggled, they are brought to the bazaar, where retail businessmen buy them. Since there are no guarantee cards as given by legal companies the traders check the smuggled phones thoroughly because they know that if they give defective phones they would lose customers and their business. Main Street, Keyzer Street and Gas Works Street Junction, are among the major centres for the illegal trade in mobile phones. While self-styled quality control is practiced in this illegal trade a major technical problem they face is when the phone is 'country locked.' The dealers have trained themselves in unlocking 'country locks' PIN codes, PUK (Personal Unlocking Key) codes security, network and contact service. The charges vary from Rs. 750 to Rs. 2,000 according to the complexity of the lock. The owner of such a business told The Sunday Times that now even the serial number of a phone is changed. The phone is connected to the computer with the help of a data cable and a computer expert can open the security settings of the phone to manipulate them. The necessary software for this jugglery is downloaded from the internet, at a cost of about Rs. 25,000, while it is legally done the cost of the process would be about Rs. 200,000. In the case of a network lock, the person enters into the network to open the lock. An insider in the telephone company itself has to divulge the password and all other data necessary to "hack" or enter the network. Police believe that robbed or lost mobile phones end up mostly in the Pettah market where businessmen are waiting to buy them at a cut rate. Among the main operators are drug addicts who rob mobile phones and sell them to buy drugs. Fort police said that they receive about seven complaints a week regarding robbed or lost phones, while Borella police get about four and Pettah police about eight complaints a month. Customs officials said that the smuggling racket was a thriving business. They believe service providers could help to control this business via a common plan of action in providing connections. |
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