CHICAGO-Southwestern Bell Mobile Systems said it started authentication service in its Chicago market, which operates as Cellular One. The technology is expected to wipe out cloning fraud as it is known today.
Called CloneBlock, Chicago’s Cellular One analog and digital subscribers will not pay any extra for the authentication service, which exchanges algorithms and a secret code between the phone and network to ensure the phone is legitimate. Users’ phones, however, must be built with authentication capability to enable the service. Such phones have been available in major markets for several months.
Southwestern Bell launched authentication concurrently with AT&T Wireless Services Inc. and Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile. The latter two companies each have authentication live in two markets.
