Re: Chipped boxes
 

NTL apparently. But may be selling them on soon.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

I think you are referring to Television transmitters. AFAIK, the mobile phone operators actually use their own mobile antennas, and if Ofcom is to be believed, they do.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

OK, I did a seach on a local mast site that I know NTL owns. But the sitefinder only listed the operators using the site, MM02, T-Mobile and Hutchison and not the owner.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

OK, I stand corrected on that. However, the story does only say they are considering selling TV towers. I would be surprised if NTL started to sell Mobile phone masts though, there would seem to be quite some profit in running the sites..

Re: Chipped boxes
 

They did loose a high proportion of fraud ivestigators in the regions through cost cutting redundancies though, so perhaps they are not as efficient at catching people these days.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

Isn't it the sellers that have the new diet for this & not the end users?

I thought they got a tap on the wrist & offered an upgrade to a full package for 12 months that they actually pay for.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

Your point is?? How would NTL find out who had the mobile from just owning the transmitters? :confused:

Re: Chipped boxes
 

They wouldn't would they, theres very little technology involved in finding illegal boxes other than pinging them while an engineer works his way back through the network from the headend to the customers drop looking for the set-top transmitting.

Without a tip off, its like finding a needle in a haystack.

Their technology can only narrow it down to the last few hundred houses connected to the network at best, it cant even be narrowed down to paying customers because many disconnected ones still have drops connected in some areas.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

At best, I would have thought NTL would only be able to track the IMEI number or phone number. Neither of which would be tracable back to the user if the user hasn't registered.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

AFAIKR those that sell them tell thier customers thatthey should also keep up a basic suscription to guarantee a connection.
Connecting one without a sub is a big gamble as an installer is likely to remove you & reuse the link.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

Of course, all they really need to do is phone the guy and set up a 'sting' ... no high-tech tracing required. :)

Re: Chipped boxes
 

Just to make it clear, I was referring to the mobile phone of the seller being registered with the relevant network. Having said that, Chris T is right. They just need to employ someone to "buy" the chipped boxes.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

Or alternatively disconnect all non-subscribing houses from the cabs.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

That would work a treat, but somehow I think NTL would claim they don't have the manpower to do it.

Re: Chipped boxes
 

Surely they could make it a company policy that when a customer is disconnected they are removed from the cab. A clean up exercise could also be planned. With Ntls turn over they could eradicate the fraud in about a year!