Friday, May 25, 2007

System to completely disable stolen handphones

Handphones are a hot item here and last year, 100,000 handphones were reported lost in the country though the actual number could be higher if all losses were reported. I have many friends who have lost phones, not once but some, a few times either due to their own carelessness or the phones were stolen. One friend loaned his phone to someone he hardly knew and the guy disappeared after that. Up to today, he has not been traced.

With the alarming rate of stolen or lost phones, the government has decided to set up a system and when installed, will render lost phones useless. This system has been in place in Britain and Australia with promising results. Read story

4 comments:

  1. Yeah, I think that is another way to try to thwart handphone thieves.. Not foolproof, but a step in the right direction nevertheless..

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  2. I believe the mobile phones can still function outside the country, unless we have a worldwide database for stolen phones.

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  3. LB, I'm with you - a step in the right direction. Some positive action is better than none.

    KS, what you said reminds me of stolen cars being taken across the border. Perhaps it will be the same with stolen phones when this system comes into effect.

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  4. After reading the story provided in the link, I think what I commented earlier was right.

    Every cell phone comes with an IMEI, which is kind of like serial number. IMEI is unique. When a user reports the loss to the 'database operator', the IMEI is kept in the database, and possibly passed on to service providers. The service providers, in turn, block all calls made from this phone.

    What the thieves can do is to simply sell the phones to other countries.

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