> -----Original Message----- > From: tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org > [mailto:tclug-list-bounces at mn-linux.org] On Behalf Of Mike Miller > Sent: Thursday, January 30, 2014 1:11 AM > To: TCLUG Mailing List > Subject: Re: [tclug-list] Cell phone bill > > On Wed, 29 Jan 2014, Tom Poe wrote: > > > Some are using the logic that people are killed over cell > phones. I > > haven't heard any support that a kill switch deters further > thefts or > > deaths. > > > If no stolen phone can ever be used again because all of them > have been > killed, then they have no value to a thief and they won't be stolen. > > I think that's pretty obvious, but I'm not sure of how they > can do it. > If someone steals a phone and turns it off right way, then > nothing's going > to kill it, right? It might then be sold and shipped to Hong > Kong. Are > way saying that there is no way that it can then be used in Hong Kong > because of the kill switch? I just don't understand how that > switch works > -- what triggers it, and what is switching? > > Mike If totally off, it can't be killed, but if on long enough for the RF network to see it try to ping a tower it could be zapped before making any connection the user would know about - unless the user was in a very sophisticated lab setup and controls or spoofs that pinging. Disabling might be done by a fusible link that would fry circuitry. Though this is POSSIBLE, it's expensive to add such a programming step when a phone is "commissioned", and it probably would make selling a used phone and changing the code for a new legal owner hard or impossible. Chuck