NTC declares war vs. illegal unblocking of mobile phones

The National Telecommunications Commission has released a new draft memorandum circular intended to go after phone repair shops that are illegally unblocking mobile phones.

The draft states that mobile phone service centers will be required to get permits to unblock mobile phones.

It has also stated that all service centers shall keep an inventory of all devices and equipment to be monitored by the NTC.

The service centers are also discouraged from keeping or repairing phones illegally acquired or stolen.

Violators will have a P5,000 per unit fine and could have their business permit revoked.

Unblocking of mobile phones, a common practice in most phone repair shops, is the removal of the network security feature of the device to a specific carrier. This allows the user to use more than one Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card in the phone, since many purchased phones are locked to a specific carrier.

For this purpose, many stolen phones end up in many phone repair shops and are resold as second-hand phones that have been "unblocked."

The draft was finalized after the commission received numerous complaints from former mobile phone users whose phones were stolen.

The NTC has previously tried to curb phone unblocking by locking the five-digit International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI) code of stolen phones reported to them. Unfortunately, many service centers have somehow bypassed this feature. - Jasmin R. Uy/BRP