The GSM Association (GSMA) and leading manufacturers including Alcatel, Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Panasonic, Sagem, Siemens and Sony Ericsson has jointly announced an agreement on measures to drastically reduce the theft of mobile phones in the world.

The GSM Association, the global trade association for mobile operators, together with the world's leading mobile phone manufacturers have established a series of comprehensive measures to enhance the integrity of handset identities (IMEI - International Mobile Equipment Identity). As a result, the effectiveness of Equipment Identity Registers (EIR) currently in use to disable further use of phones once reported stolen, will be greatly improved.

In parallel with today's announcement, the GSM Association is undertaking a concerted drive to extend and enhance the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR), its global database register of stolen phones, so that GSM mobile operators can work together to prevent the reuse of stolen phones. Previous to this agreement, the potential impact of the Association's database was compromised by security weaknesses in some handsets.

"This commitment by manufacturers, together with the continued extension of the GSMA's handset database are critical elements in tackling the problem of handset theft, but they are only part of the overall solution," said Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association. "We would like to see a more comprehensive approach that includes additional government-led action, such as we have seen in the UK."

The international Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) was originally introduced, as a unique terminal identity, for type approval reasons, so that non-type approved terminals could be prevented from connecting to GSM networks. Nowadays, the IMEI is used to identify mobile station equipment on mobile networks in order to be able to take measures against the use of stolen equipment or equipment whose use can not be tolerated under Article 7 of the R&TTE directive (within Europe), or an appropriate regulatory requirement in other markets. Additionally, the IMEI can be used to allow infrastructure to load appropriate patches and adaptations to avoid inter-working issues.

The GSMA and manufacturers, working to achieve IMEI integrity, have agreed handset security principles to provide guidance to handset manufacturers and to provide operators with a set of criteria against which handset security can be assessed. It is expected that handsets available on the market during the next 18 months will be progressively compliant with the agreed principles.

In acknowledgement of the fact that security is not absolute, the GSMA and the manufacturers have agreed to establish a formal process to centralise the reporting of newly identified IMEI security weaknesses. The overall objective of this initiative is to improve handset security levels during the manufacturing life cycle of current and future products. The GSMA and the manufacturers involved have also committed to investigating additional technical means through which handsets will be rendered useless after theft.