Mobile operators can block service to stolen phones but don抰 often do so, and that抯 fueling a problem in Africa, Nokia Dir.-Strategy & Business Development for New Growth Markets Petteri Terho said Tues. at the Commonwealth Telecom Organization conference in London. In S. Africa, 30% of phones are stolen and recycled, said William Hearmon, African CDMA Forum chmn. Operators claim a social duty to cut services when that happens but care more about getting paid each month, he said. Unlike in the U.S. and other industrialized nations, in Africa concern over stolen mobiles is less about identity theft -- Africans 揹on抰 give a damn?about that, he told us -- than about losing one抯 phone, Terho said.
展开▼
