Stupid Cell Phone law going into effect....

[Life_N_Cancun]

The (stupid) cell phone registration law (to catch kidnappers who use their personal, legally obtained, and honestly registered cell phones to extort victims and conduct their criminal business) is going into effect April 10th 2010. According to the advertising if you're not registered by then your phone will be suspended (and probably have a fee to reactivate).

For Telcel the details on how to register are here. If you don't have a "curp" you're SOL apparently and will have to put it in someone else's name. (so when you start your life of crime the police will go arrest that person)

I *think* I successfully registered mine back when this first started, but I, like most people, will not know if all is well until after the deadline has passed... since there doesn't seem to be any way to verify your phone is registered.

Anyway take care of it if you can, and prepare for a lot of missed calls and headaches next month.

[ToriB]

I thought I read that if your phone is not registered, you would hear some message when you make a call. I know once my phone was registered, I stopped hearing some sort of message.

[Jim in Cancun]

I heard that only about 40% are registered so far. People are hesitant to give the information knowing that it will eventually end up in the hands of kidnappers.

[Life_N_Cancun]

Originally Posted by ToriB

I thought I read that if your phone is not registered, you would hear some message when you make a call. I know once my phone was registered, I stopped hearing some sort of message.

When you get a new phone Telcel plays a message until you register it with them.. thats different from the government registration that has to be done by April 10th. If you purchased your phone within the last 6 months or so Telcel *might* have already taken care of the government thing. If they asked for your "curp" then they probably did. Below is the bit from the Telcel website that says they will suspend any phone not good by the 10th of April.

Originally Posted by TelCel

¿Qué sucede si no registro mi celular antes del 10 de abril del 2010?
La Ley Federal de Telecomunicaciones establece que, transcurrido el plazo legal, la línea será suspendida sin responsabilidad alguna para el proveedor de servicios.

But if only %40 have registered as Jim says I strongly doubt that they would risk upsetting the economy by suspending 60% of cell phone users... then again this is Mexico... so they might very well do that. I think everyone agrees how stupid it is, as the people who will end up with the information may not be the ones you want calling/tracking you, and criminals will just use stolen phones as they always have. That said, just as in the US, politicians in Mexico push countless bad/stupid/counterproductive/expensive laws on a daily basis.

[V]

Thanks, Life, for alerting us, and telling us how to respond, as well. I'm going to check mine, now.

[RiverGirl]

I got a CURP in about 5 minutes. I needed an FM3 to do it, but that was it. Not saying I agree with the law, just that getting CURP isn't hard, if you are straight with INM.

[heatandsun]

I don't have a curp, but I do have an FM3. I went to one of the Telcel offices this week and the phone was registered within minutes. They even made the copy of the FM3 (a first!). They had me test the phone afterwards to make sure it was still working. I guess I will know for sure after April 1 if all is well.

[RiverGirl]

I just registered my cell phone via text msg. It took all of three minutes. There are directions in the video here: Registro Nacional de Usuarios de Telefoni­a Movil (click Ver Spot)

What you do is send a text to: 2877 (no charge, how nice of them...)

In the body of your text put:

Alta.[your CURP]

- or -

Alta.[firstname].[lastname/apellido].[birthday][birth-month][birth-year/4 digits]

Then send it. I immediately got a message saying my registration was being processed. Then a moment later got a message saying it had been processed (did they check my CURP against a national db?).

I used my CURP. But it doesn't look like you need a CURP to register via text message. I wonder if you can register without a CURP and give false info? That would defeat the purpose of this whole silly law.

I'm now ready to use my cell phone for illicit purposes...whoohoo.

[Life_N_Cancun]

There are LOTS of Mexicans who don't have their "curp", especially the older ones who never needed it before. Their is a big brother database that they check it against called RENAPO, but whats to stop me from registering a phone with the "curp" of someone I don't like then threatening a hundred people before dropping that 100 peso sim card in the trash? It's not as if it's really verifying the owner of the phone in any way... unless they start requiring that you register in person and even then fake ID's are plenty.... its just a stupid stupid big brother-ish law passed so some politician could say "I'm protecting you and your children".. its the same BS that goes on in the US and why our prisons are bursting at the seems and draining the economy... meanwhile what few rights we have left are being stripped away in the name of "security" everyday.... but thats another rant.

[Susan in Cancun]

I just registered my phone, using Rivergirl's instructions. I don't have a CURP, but got confirmation in seconds saying I'm registered. It appears that Telcel has given me a CURP because message says that my number has been registered with CURP (then lists the number) since 14MAR 2010...today's date.

[Life_N_Cancun]

Originally Posted by Susan in Cancun

It appears that Telcel has given me a CURP because message says that my number has been registered with CURP (then lists the number) since 14MAR 2010...today's date.

??? more likely you do have a "curp" somehow and your information was matched to it.. but who knows.... perhaps INM is assigning them now automatically?

[RiverGirl]

I think that hubby once explained to me that the CURP is something that can be figured out if you know enough info about a person. Mine has the first two letters of my first last name, then an X because I don't have a legal second last name (I don't use mommy's last name), then it has the first initial of my first name, then my birth date...but after than I don't understand where all the numbers and letters come from. I think they have to do with where you were born.

Point is that I *think* your entire CURP is taken from info about you...so whether you have one officially assigned or not it's the same number. I'm not positive I'm right, but that was my understanding. Maybe one of our more Mexican posters can explain this better?

[Susan in Cancun]

Life,

I've never gone through the process of getting a CURP so I don't know who assigned it...but I seem to have one now, as far as Telcel is concerned.

[RiverGirl]

I did some research on CURPs. Susan hasn't given enough info to have a CURP automatically assigned, from what I can see. So I think that you must be able to register your phone without having a CURP (as HeatandSun did).

There's info about what each character in the CURP stands for here (in Spanish): ¿Que significa cada letra y numero del CURP? - Yahoo! Respuestas

All but the last two characters come from your unique personal data. The last two are numbers which are assigned to avoid duplicates. The CURP uses elements of your names, your gender, your birthday, and your place of birth and/or nationality.

[Epic]

You can look up your curp online, you need to do a bit of googleing but its quite easy, i needed a copy for ULSA and found it online in minutes... You might have not been issued the CURP Document but probably already have one that was automaticly generated when the CURP Protocol was launched

[mixz1]

Originally Posted by Life_N_Cancun

... whats to stop me from registering a phone with the "curp" of someone I don't like then threatening a hundred people before dropping that 100 peso sim card in the trash?...

You would have to throw the phone away. It's not the SIM card that's being registered, it's the phone's unique identifier or IMEI. You can find yours under the battery or on the inside of the phone's back cover.

International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI) - A unique 15-digit number that serves as the serial number of the GSM handset. The IMEI appears on the label located on the back of the phone. The IMEI is automatically transmitted by the phone when the network asks for it. A network operator might request the IMEI to determine if a device is in disrepair, stolen or to gather statistics on fraud or faults

[Life_N_Cancun]

Uhmm... no I dont think so.. not with telcel's amigo prepaid phones.... I've swapped sim cards thru various phones the sim will work in any unlocked or telcel phone without issue. Perhaps they are automatically logging each phone's IMEI with each call but the registering is with the sim otherwise you'd have to do it again every time you switched phones... but for that matter you can get a prepaid phone for $25 so not a big issue if you have a nefarious intent.

PS: You can also change a phones identifier with the right software... I did it for my old Motorola.

[mixz1]

Originally Posted by Life_N_Cancun

Uhmm... no I dont think so.. not with telcel's amigo prepaid phones.... I've swapped sim cards thru various phones the sim will work in any unlocked or telcel phone without issue. Perhaps they are automatically logging each phone's IMEI with each call but the registering is with the sim otherwise you'd have to do it again every time you switched phones... but for that matter you can get a prepaid phone for $25 so not a big issue if you have a nefarious intent.

PS: You can also change a phones identifier with the right software... I did it for my old Motorola.

I don't understand your point. All you're saying is that your SIM works in any unlocked phone. The carrier, be it Telcel or anybody else immediately knows that this particular SIM is being used in a phone of this particular IMEI. The point is that the data consisting of the time and date of the call is indexed with the SIM serial and IEMI of the equipment used to make the call. This "dumb" registration may be making note of the SIM but it really wants the IMEI.

The fact that the SIM works cross platform is immaterial. And yes, the $25 phone is the criminal/terrorist dream weapon, for threats, extortion and triggering IED's.

One last point: All of us hackers have messed with an IMEI. If you wind up changing to a number that's already in use it can have interesting consequences. On newer phones, like Nokias, it's almost impossible to get into the phone without some very expensive equipment. I watched a Telcel tech banging away on my TIM (Rome, Italy carrier) Nokia 6131 for an hour and he couldn't get into it. I finally had it unlocked by a Nokia service center in Boston. The days of coding via the keypad are over.

[Life_N_Cancun]

My point was.. I *think* that Telcel is associating this registration info with the sim cards NOT the phones. Your phone number is attached to the sim, so when you put it in another phone it works, if Telcel was using the IMEI then everytime you put your sim into another phone I would expect it to play the message telling you to register. Not to say that their system won't record the identifier regardless, but the registration is with the sim... at least thats what I think.

I do understand what you're saying.. even with the switching of the sim card the identifier would be the same so they could compare that and find whose sim normally uses that phone.

Now that I think about it my old razr had an option "disable IMEI" in the advanced menu... I never messed with it, but I wonder if Telcel would allow a call to go though without receiving an identifier.. only the sim number....

PS: we prefer the term "modders" and the best way to unlock a difficult phone is to flash the whole thing with new firmware...

[T.J.]

I also just tried RG's text message and used the option b she offered up, the one without the CURP. Got an immediate error msg saying "CURP NO VALIDA"

Tried again using only the CURP. Got a txt saying it was processing. A minute later another msg said it is registered, had my CURP and today's date.

[T.J.]

Mix is totally right. The IMEI identifies the phone. Sr. Slim knows what IMEI phone is being used with any SIM. At least he can know.

Life is about the SIM being switchable between phones but I think not so right about the SIM being the tracking the registration. Maybe not wrong, but less right.

You can find your IMEI number by dialing *#06# on a GSM phone. The IMEI pops up immediately after you hit the 2nd #.

This can be relevant if you need to unlock a phone from one provider and use it on another providers network. I do this by getting my phones in the US and T-Mobile Cust. Svc gives me the unlock code and instructions when I verify the IMEI number. It also happens to be on the box and under the battery but who keeps the box and the sticker could be wrong, but not the internal phone memory.

[Life_N_Cancun]

Just found this article about the cell phone law.... also noticed a few things today myself.

I charged some credit to my phone at Extra, and when I dialed the *333 to check the balance it said I could use it before April 9th! So I'm thinking WTF I only get two weeks?, then it occurs to me the the 9th would be the day before the April 10th deadline... so I'm thinking two things now...

1. My phone may not have successfully registered... ( & there is no way to check yet....)
2. Telcel may be planing to screw everyone out of their credit on the 10th using the law as an excuse to not reimburse them.... call me cynical but that sounds exactly like something Slim's business would take advantage of since the law said word for word that the providers won't be liable. Not to mention the "reactivation fees" that I'm sure are all lined up.

It may not matter though as the article says that there will be a six month extension since so many people are not registered.

PS: I'll give mixz1 his credit as it does seem that they will be logging the IEMI info as one part of the law in addition to the sim info... its still a really bonehead law though since phones are so easy to get/steal. Only the truly idiot criminals will not use disposable/stolen phones... of' course there will be a few no doubt but they would get caught sooner or later anyway...

[Jim in Cancun]

Yesterday's local paper said they are asking for a one-year extension.

[Windknot]

Someone asked what the CURP code meant. Here it is:

The CURP code is composed of 18 characters that are assigned as follows:

The first surname's initial and first inside vowel;
The second surname's initial (or the letter "X" if, like some foreign nationals, the person has no second surname);
The first given name's initial;
Date of birth (2 digits for year, 2 digits for month, and 2 digits for day);
A one-letter gender indicator (H for male (hombre in Spanish) or M for female (mujer in Spanish));
A two-letter code for the state where the person was born; for persons born abroad, the code NE (nacido en el extranjero) is used;
The first surname's first inside consonant;
The second surname's first inside consonant;
The first given name's first inside consonant; and
Two characters ranging from 1-9 for people born before 2000 or from A-Z for people born since 2000; these characters are generated by the National Population Registry to prevent identical entries.
For married women, only maiden names are used.

For example, the CURP code for a hypothetical person named Gloria Hernández García, a female, born on 27 April 1956 in the state of Veracruz, could be HEGG560427MVZRRL05.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_ID_Number_(CURP)_(Mexico)
_________________

[mixz1]

Originally Posted by Life_N_Cancun

PS: I'll give mixz1 his credit as it does seem that they will be logging the IEMI info as one part of the law in addition to the sim info... its still a really bonehead law though since phones are so easy to get/steal. Only the truly idiot criminals will not use disposable/stolen phones... of' course there will be a few no doubt but they would get caught sooner or later anyway...

Thanks for the credit. Stolen is obviously the way to go. NOB, IEMI info may be recorded at the point of sale, so it would have to be cash or a stolen credit card. Doable, but yet another layer of hassle, which in this case is a good thing.

So... I have questions. Maybe I'm tech challenged, but I could not register our phones using the phone until we went down to Parque de Palapas and got our CURP numbers (and a good breakfast at Javier's).

First question: We have 3 phones and when I tried to register the 3rd phone with my curp, the message went out but I have not received any answers. What can I do?

Second question: We have friends who travel here on FM-Ts and stay at their apartment (Casa Maya) part of the year. They don't have CURPs but they do have local (Amigo) phones. What are they to do?

[rawkus]

Ive spent two days arguing about this as they "cant" register me since I "dont have a million, freaking names"...

I told them: My first name, my middle name(which you NEVER use in Sweden/Scandinavia/Australia etc..) and my last name...

"Nope, you have to have more"...

We had to register it in my wife's name, so in a way it already defeats the purpose.

How about if the government would decide over actions that do NOT target us innocent..?

Its stupid and I can assure you that it will be misused (taa-daah!)


Also heard on the news last night that they are pushing the limit for another year, as some 70-80% (??) of the Mexican population have NOT registered...

[Life_N_Cancun]

Originally Posted by mixz1

First question: We have 3 phones and when I tried to register the 3rd phone with my curp, the message went out but I have not received any answers. What can I do?

Second question: We have friends who travel here on FM-Ts and stay at their apartment (Casa Maya) part of the year. They don't have CURPs but they do have local (Amigo) phones. What are they to do?

It said on Telcel's website that you could register an unlimited number of phones to the same curp (again... defeating the purpose) so 3 should be fine... as far as I know there is no way to check if it registered correctly. Even the Telcel office in Gran Plaza said that it was a government program not theirs therefore they can't check if a phone is registered, although they said they would be able to at some point. You're also supposed to be able to check what phones are connected to your curp.... at some point.. but nothing is working yet.

As for tourists, at this point I don't think they can register, so they'll have to get it in someones else's name (uhm... defeating the purpose)

For all you kidnappers, I'd imagine its easiest to just use the phone of the person you've nabbed since that provides some proof that you have the person anyway. (just be sure to turn it off before they can triangulate your position... assuming they know how to do that in Mexico) Somehow I doubt anyone committing these crimes would have an issue getting hold of a phone to use.

[Jim in Cancun]

Rawkus: your "other" name is your mother's maiden name. Of course I never used it before I got here but when in Rome.....................

[rawkus]

@Jim: Believe me, we tried

They didnt accept it, but said its ok to register my phone in my wife's name as well...


EDIT: Come to think of it, I dont even have my mothers maiden name (aka. the name she had before marrying, right?)

[Jim in Cancun]

yes--your mother's last name.