Local Mobile Operators to Connect to GSMA's International Mobile Phone Black List'
Seoul: South Korea's mobile operators are acting to protect consumers against lost or stolen mobile devices as part of a major new GSMA initiative in the country. The launch of the GSMA's We Care in South Korea will see local operators SKT, KT and LG Uplus share information on lost and stolen devices with the GSMA Black List, allowing reported lost or stolen phones to be blocked both home and abroad.
The initiative is launched in collaboration with the Korea Association for ICT Promotion (KAIT) and is supported by South Korea's Ministry of Science and ICT. The various parties will commit to the We Care Charter at a signing ceremony in Seoul today. The signing will mark the first launch of We Care in the Asia Pacific region.
We are delighted to see South Korea's mobile industry and government coming together to protect its mobile phone users from becoming victims of international device crime, said Julian Gorman, Head of Asia Pacific, GSMA. Today's agreement demonstrates how national mobile ecosystems can deliver real benefits and protections for consumers as part of the GSMA's We Care initiative - and we hope it will be the first of many We Care launches across Asia.
Under the agreement, South Korea's existing Central Equipment Identity Registry (C-EIR), operated by KAIT, will be connected to the GSMA IMEI Database used for reducing international device crime. The platform allows both parties to exchange blacklisted IMEI data on lost or stolen devices, ensuring compromised devices can be blocked locally and globally. Once criminals learn that stolen devices are likely to be quickly disabled, device theft becomes much less attractive.
The GSMA Black List is updated daily through reports from more than 125 operators from 42 countries around the world, protecting more than one billion people worldwide.
We Care in Support of the Sustainable Development Goals
Through the GSMA's We Care initiative, operators around the world are taking steps to ensure their customers can enjoy the transformative benefits of mobile technology in a safe and reliable environment. These in-country campaigns support the mobile industry's commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, allowing operators to drive impact at a local level.
Driven by operators, together with the GSMA, We Care campaigns address ten key areas. These topic areas include: digital inclusion; children and mobile; environmental care; disaster response; SMS spam control; mobile privacy; mobile and health; infrastructure deployment; contribution to public safety; and handset theft.
The first We Care campaign was launched in February 2014. To date, there are 29 We Care campaigns running in 20 markets worldwide, in collaboration with 67 mobile operators.
Supporting quotes
We are very glad to sign the GSMA We Care campaign for the first time in Asia, which is aimed at preventing theft of mobile devices and the illegal use of them. SKT plans to actively participate in campaigns such as We Care which support the Sustainable Development Goals and protect customers' rights. We would like to express our sincere appreciation to MSIT, KAIT and GSMA for organising this campaign and encouraging the participation of the domestic operators.
Young-sang Kwon, Director, SKT
We are honored to be the first Asian country and carrier to participate in the GSMA's We Care campaign. We recognised the need for taking proactive action to protect the customers from device crime, which could result not only in personal economic losses but also incidences such as the leakage of personal information. We will also offer cooperation for preventing customers' damage. We would like to express a big appreciation to MSIT, KAIT and GSMA for their efforts.
Han-chul Bae, Director, KT
LG Uplus hopes that, through the We Care' campaign, consumers will be protected from device crime. Cooperating with GSMA, we will help to prevent device crime such as theft and the illegal distribution of the device and to minimise the occurrence of this crime. Furthermore, we will also be contributing to building a healthy mobile ecosystem.
Kyung-jung Park, Director, LG Uplus
It is a great honor to participate in the GSMA's We Care campaign for the first time in Asia, which is facilitating the sharing of 120 operators' IMEI black lists in 44 countries. KAIT has been operating the IMEI Integrated Management Center to prevent illegal use of lost or stolen mobile devices within the country since May 2012. Through the new campaign, we can block both within the country and also on an international basis. I hope that operators in other countries join We Care to take the lead to ensure stolen devices are globally blocked and quickly rendered useless to criminals and their customers.
Hwan-jeong Yang, Vice-Chairman, Korea Association for ICT Promotion (KAIT)
-ENDS-
Translation
Korean
About the GSMA
The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting more than 750 operators and nearly 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces the industry-leading MWC events held annually in Barcelona, Los Angeles and Shanghai, as well as the Mobile 360 Series of regional conferences.
For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.
Media Contacts:
For the GSMA:
GSMA Press Office
pressoffice@gsma.com
Like what you read? Share.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
Local Mobile Operators to Connect to GSMA's International Mobile Phone Black List' 
