For the majority of users that have experienced it, losing a mobile phone whether due to accidental reasons or theft is a rather troublesome (and traumatic) experience – all the lost memories or worse, the private data stored inside your most personal of devices.
To help Malaysian users cope with such situations as well as an effort to curb mobile phone theft, the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has activated the Public Cellular Blocking Service (PCBS).
With the cooperation from all telcos in Malaysia, PCBS – which was actually introduced early this year in February – allows lost or stolen mobile phones to be blocked from accessing any mobile network throughout the country.
This is done via the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) which is a unique identification number that are given to every GSM and UMTS mobile phone in the world.
In order to utilize PCBS in the case of phones that are lost or stolen, all users need to do is report the incident to their respective telcos which will then retrieve the IMEI number of the unfortunate device from its network records and pass it to PCBS.
From there, PCBS will then pass the info to all telcos so that a nationwide block on the said device could take place.
Consumers are also urged by MCMC to register their devices for free on PCBS BlockMyPhone portal as the system is also linked to the relevant authorities and trusted third parties that might be able to facilitate the return of the lost or stolen device back to users, should it be found again.
The portal is able to support up to 10 devices per user although registration is still purely on a voluntary basis.
Do note that PCBS and SIM block are not the same thing as PCBS blocks the actual physical device while SIM block involves the user’s own SIM card and cellular service in order to avoid unwanted charges made by the people who found or stole your device.
Furthermore, PCBS is not able to determine the location of the lost or stolen device and can’t be used to remotely activate a full system wipe on the device. Hence, the onus is still on the user to set up some form of security password or PIN to complement PCBS’ service and protect users’ data.
To know more PCBS, check out its portal over at www.blockmyphone.my.
[Source: PCBS BlockMyPhone via Amanz]
