Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020

No more gifted foreign smartphones to Cuba?

Country forums / Cuba / Cuba

Am I reading this correctly?

Sorry if this has already been discussed.

Cheers,
Terry

I thought that this was a measure against phones which had been reported stolen.

I have just entered the IMEIs from my UK and Panamanian phones in http://www.etecsa.cu/telefonia_movil/compruebe_imei/ and both said Su Código IMEI: ... puede operar en la Red de ETECSA

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Sure will be interesting to find out what ETECSA considers an "invalid IMEI".

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Not even a slight est clue what this means but to date we have only gifted:;: Nutella, dog food and traded sandals and a large picture dictionary. Never a snart phone! Lol!!

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Ya, it's primarily designed to restrict phones that have been reported stolen.

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Thanks guys. If it's only to control stolen phones, no worries. It would a huge shame though if it affected unlocked phones brought in from abroad.

Hope everything is cool with everyone.

Cheers,
Terry

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gres - but what it is designed for and what it actually does could be two different things.

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They already have everyone's IMEI, that uses their network, including phones sold through them.

It just looks like they're integrating a list of reported stolen ones into their system to block them. If a problem, you show up at an Etecsa office and plead your case.

All the Canadian carriers have integrated their lists into one, so that a phone stolen, that worked with one carrier, can't be used on another.

As far as i know, the Canadian and U.S. Telecoms have yet to cooperate, hence, phones stolen in Canada get sold in the U.S. And vice versa.

I'm sure there could be'other uses.

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Hey Terry......would like to contact you cant remember how......Poshmcdoo

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...by PM?

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Interesting way to lock up the stolen phone for sale on the street business. Hopefully that's all this achieves!

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Not sure if this is related to same subject...
A phone I bought in Vancouver,left in October, last years model, and purchased in a London Drugs , was blocked after several months of use in Cuba. Apparently there were 12 phones with same IMEI #
Never got a good explanation.

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Someone in Cuba got a hold of that phones IMEI, and used it to change the number on a bunch of stolen or lost phones. there would have been little reason to do that in Cuba. Now that trick doesn't work anymore.

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