Orange to offer screaming phones

ORANGE UK will be offering handsets that boast an alarm feature called Synchronica 'Scream', according to a report in the The Business. It apparently sounds like a human screaming when triggered.

The new facility will form part of Orange's efforts to combat handset theft. Initially it will be offered to business users for under £10 per month. Part of Synchronica Mobile Manager offering, it will also enable Orange to wipe users' data off stolen phones.

This doesn't fulfil the INQ's own recommendation for MICAF (Mobile Industry Crime Action Forum) that mobile handsets should be completely disabled after being stolen so that they are useless to the robbers.

One INQ reader appears to believe that such a facility is offered by all the mobile operators in Turkey. They're obliged to register all imported unique handset numbers (IMEI) in a common database.

That way a stolen handset will be useless on any of the country's four (now three) mobile networks. It also helps to prevent stolen handset being brought into the country because their IMEI numbers won't be recognised.

However, it still won't thoroughly zap the phone so it can't be used in any third world country. µ

See Also
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Mobile industry pledges crim crackdown