New Phone Will Scream if It's Stolen

[Kezza]

The Associated Press
Oct 2, 2006

LONDON - Now if your mobile telephone is stolen, you can scream - and your phone can, too. A new service launched Monday is designed to deter mobile phone theft by equipping telephones with an ear-piercing scream.

The screaming won't stop unless the battery is removed. Even if the thief replaces the phone's SIM card, the handset will not work.

All customers' information is centrally stored, so contacts, ringtones, pictures, texts and other data can be retrieved when a new handset is purchased. The service costs about $18 a month.

The goal of the service is to make mobile phones useless to anyone but the rightful owner, said Mark Whiteman, the managing director of Remote XT.

"We'll see the market for stolen handsets stamped out once and for all," he said.

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Ah, the advances in technology, eh? Wonder if it will really work? I'm not sure if I would pay $18.00 a month since my mobile only cost me $40.00!

[faceless]

It is a good idea, but that price is just outrageous - it just shows how much the companies actually care about the customers that only if you pay a high premium are you protected in any way at all. I'm sure one of the companies will start offering it for free though and then they'll all follow...

[HandoGod]

Saw this last night on the news, and I agree the price is too much.

It'd cost you less to buy a baseball bat and beat the theif away

[Skylace]

Way too expensive. Seeing as my phone was free!

[IRiSHMaFIA]

[maycm]

As far as the customer is concerned, the phone will get replaced if they lose it, or it is stolen, so this sounds more like a benefit to the phone company if anything.

The more interesting part to me is: