Why is it you can use stolen boost mobile or nextel phones?

[ryan1918]

What I never understood is why sprint, and other networks can just disable, or ban the id from there network so the phone cannot be added on to the network, but boost mobile and nextel phones that are reported stolen, bills not paid on them, they will work no matter what, I've used many phones like this in the past I never understood it, why didn't they ever create something to block the phone from the network? Is it because there is a sim card and it's just pop in and go? or is there another reason for it?

Because I know if I reported my nextel phone stolen, I could pop in my sim card and it would work, but if I tried to actually put the phone on my account, they won't do it because its stolen or whatnot, don't make a lot of sense.

[imtravis]

Lost/stolen phones on AT&T and other "SIM" based phones, are able to be used, if I remember correctly. I know I lost a phone, then found it like three months later, which I gave to a friend, and they were able to use it with no issues, using their own SIMs.

[Matt]

at&t and T-Mobile choose not to blacklist IMEI numbers of their phones. No idea why but some other GSM (SIM based) providers around the world will.

[ryan1918]

I'm asking about NEXTEL.

[Dan]

Well, then here goes:

Nextel must choose not to blacklist the IMEI of the device. They could of course, just like a GSM provider could, but they choose not to. Its like asking why one gas station is 5 cents cheaper than another one. Its their choice.

:wavey:

[SawThoseHornsOff]

i would imagine the amount of work it would take to track down and blacklist msn's and imei's that work with sim cards would cost more $$ than to just let the phones go. Lets remember that the true activating compotent in iden and gsm phones is the sim card....nothing else matters (with the exception of iden blackberries, which i'm sure there is a workaround for that too). CDMA is activated on an actual serial # attached to the account....much much easier to shut down....

[Dan]

i would imagine the amount of work it would take to track down and blacklist msn's and imei's that work with sim cards would cost more $$ than to just let the phones go. Lets remember that the true activating compotent in iden and gsm phones is the sim card....nothing else matters (with the exception of iden blackberries, which i'm sure there is a workaround for that too). CDMA is activated on an actual serial # attached to the account....much much easier to shut down....

I do believe the imei is broadcast when a call is attempted, which would allow a service to restrict access and forward the call to an internal department. It just is not something they wish to do at this time, apparently.

I purchased a phone from a member on here and jokingly asked at the AT&T store if I was gonna get denied activation on a go phone account because it was a blacklisted phone. I was told their policy was to activate any device that would work with their service. Probably makes them more money in the long run than blacklisting a device.

[SawThoseHornsOff]

only if the account has an "open ip" soc on it. You prevent provisioning, you're good. Seen it many a time, when nextel users sim pop, the device on their account lookup does not change.