"Computer hackers this week said they had cracked and published the secret code that protects 80 per cent of the world’s mobile phones. The move will leave more than 3bn people vulnerable to having their calls intercepted, and could force mobile phone operators into a costly upgrade of their networks....“A year ago it would have required equipment costing hundreds of thousands of dollars, and serious expertise to listen in to a call,” said Simon Bransfield-Garth, chief executive of Cellcrypt, a mobile phone encryption company. “Today it is going to require $1,500 of network equipment and a computer. It is getting down to a mainstream price tag and moving to the point when it will be straightforward to do,” he continued." - bob

by "intercept" do they mean: "listen to" or "have routed to a different mobile phone"? If it's the former, I don't really care if any listens to me ask my wife if she needs anything from the Grocery store. If it's the later, that would just be annoying. I could see how many people in positions of power or wealth would be very concerned about either. - no name

They mean "listen to". They're talking about cryptanalysis of A5/1, a cipher used to protect GSM (non 3G) voice call privacy. It was always a weak (DES grade) cipher, developed in secret and weakened for political reasons. If you are very concerned with privacy, use your own encryption, not off the shelf GSM phones. - ⓞnor