said by buddahbless:So this may significantly slow down the rate of stolen phones
Thats probably the goal, and considering that newer smartphones are having their ESN and IMEI numbers embedded into their hardware, its getting ever more difficult to change them, and the amount of work to do it isnt worth it anymore, especially with the prices of new prepaid android based phones.
Look at it this way: All smaller carriers and resellers, with a few exceptions, run on one of the big 4s networks, so even if it only involved the big 4, its still 98% of the US market covered. Also, consider that it will be an easily accessible national database to ANY wireless carrier, and it will more than likely come with the stipulation that they MUST look and see if the phone is already listed there or not, which means that it would be really easy to integrate into any size carrier. It wont stop it dead, but it will slow it down a ton.