Noticias
The United States, will support the fight against the theft of cell phones in Colombia.
The Ministry of Information Technologies and Communications has signed a bilateral agreement between the Colombian Government and the North American Government to continue the prevention of theft of mobile devices in Colombia.
The ICT Ministry signed the Memorandum of Understanding between the North American Government and the Colombian Government, which seeks to develop regulatory arrangements in each country to prevent the theft of mobile phones.
The commitment was signed between the Federal Communications Commission USA (FCC); the Communications Regulatory Commission of Colombia (CRC) and the ICT Ministry, in order to create strategies to restrict the operation and illegal trade of stolen mobile devices through exchanges and mutual lock System for the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI ) reported by users in each country.
At the present moment, this database has 37.5 million exchange IMEI of which 32 million are in Latin America and the United States. North America accounts for 19% (7.2 million) Brazil 15% (5.6 million), Colombia 13% (4.8 million), Argentina 12% (4.4 million) and the rest of Latin American countries 26% (9.8 million).
The Colombian National Government has strengthened the strategy by taking measures such as: the control of importing and exporting of mobile devices, creating a centralized system for detecting invalid IMEI. As well as, strengthening the complaint with the competent authorities, increasing the interaction between police and judicial authorities to combat criminal organizations by reported information from users.
"The figures indicate that 60% of robberies in the capital of Colombia are for theft of mobile phones, we want to prevent these negative statistics. We recognize the importance of taking steps to combat theft of mobile tools. For this reason we are signing this bilateral agreement with the United States to joint forces in fighting crime. " Said ICT Minister David Luna.
Since 2012, Colombia and the United States have been working on agreements and necessary measures to prevent theft. Finally the agreements were established in the Memorandum of Understanding with the following goals and action items.
1. Avoid activating mobile devices stolen in the other countries through the exchange of IMEI.
2. Monitor progress on reducing theft and support each other's efforts to disrupt the illegal market for the stolen mobile devices in their respective Countries.
3. Encourage other carriers of other countries to exchange information on stolen mobile, illegal or lost mobile devices through existing and future technology platforms.
4. Establish Methodologies to benchmark progress in these important efforts and if feasible, issue a joint report in both countries with respect to compliances with development of carrier's commitments and others no less than twice a year.
5. Conduct public education campaigns to promote the use of pins, passwords and mobile applications to help protect sensitive personnel information on mobile devices.
6. Collaborate on best practices on this topic and share information on consumer education and outreach efforts.
7. Jointly require security equipment manufacturers to develop technologies that discourage theft mobile device.
