Here in Germany encryption (A5/1) is enabled by default, however, as stated at the 26C3 (a computer security conference), it is possible to build a system to eavesdrop on some one for very low costs and get SMS and calls (eg. from your bank) recorded.

This involves simulating a rogue cell that tells your phone to connect to AND disable encryption (that'd be A5/0).
German network providers usually disable the "you're unprotected" icon. God knows why...

Since we cannot do anything against passive decryption of the network traffic, there should be some countermeasures against active attacks like:

- your home cell sending a signal thats up to 50% stronger than usual (that's possible with what I've read, because the cell-id is unique and signal strength can be read via dbus easily)

- your phone establishing an unencrypted connection to the network.

epninety: Thanks for your testing efforts. I'm looking forward to that.