Central Equipment Identity Register

The Equipment Identity Register (EIR ) is an optional part of the GSM digital cellular network. It is responsible for the management of subscriber and device numbers.

The EIR is used to verify that it is the mobile device used is a blocked or stolen phone. To this end, when logging on the mobile device, the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI ) of the device is delivered and evaluated them.

The EIR has a white, a gray and a black list of IMEIs. The IMEIs on the white list are fine, those are tested on the gray list and IMEIs stolen mobile phones are on the black list ( associated mobile phones remains the network access denied ).

In practice, the EIR for the theft protection often proves to be unsuitable because:

• Can reprogram the IMEI of a mobile phone with appropriate software,
• Waive many network operators for the effective application of the EIR or
• The lists are not synchronized with other network operators.

In Germany, meanwhile, only Vodafone supports the locking of IMEIs of terminals that were purchased from Vodafone. The operator E -Plus offered this procedure to, but it turned a result of bad experiences. The German Telekom provides no way to block out all IMEIs on (March 2013). In England, all providers support this possibility.