Deutsche Telekom AG (DT), a German Telecommunications Company has recently announced that it is going to introduce blockchain technology to create a trusted IMEI blacklist that network operators, smartphone manufacturers, and end users anywhere could use to list and identify blacklisted phones. For the same DT has collaborated with SAP and its partner Camelot ITLab.

The idea behind the merger is to implement blockchain to resolve the former issues regarding tracking of lost or stolen phones. Earlier, DT used the IMEI number of the mobile to block its access to the mobile network. This prevented thieves to use the Deutsche Telekom network with the stolen device but a connection to other networks was possible.

Using blockchain, the company wants to make a special IMEI Blacklist where any blacklisted phones are explorable. This will enable other networks parties to block the phone from connecting to their network.

DT is hopeful that this initiative will lead to reduction in data breaches as well as identity thefts. The company says that all the authorised parties can share information between them using encrypted blockchain. Similarly, identifying a phone from a list of blacklisted devices would be easy. This will lead to prevent the thieves to use any other SIMs in the phone. Moreover, in case of misplacement, the users can later verify and whitelist their phone to use again.

The company also stated that they have already tested their prototype which came with positive results. The next step involves the implementation of the prototype with the help from SAP Asset Management. This will ensure better tracking of employee cell phones. Besides this, Camelot ITLab is also providing its accelerator package, which will stop re-use of the stolen mobile phones.