AT&T To Launch Blocking Service For Stolen Phones

Have you ever lost your phone? If so, you probably canceled the service and changed your passwords. But wouldn’t you rather that the person who pocketed your phone not be able to use it at all? Well, AT&T might be able to assist you there.

According to The Verge, a trusted source has told them that AT&T will launch a new service next Tuesday that will allow mobile phone owners to alert AT&T of a stolen device. Instead of AT&T just canceling service to the device, AT&T will completely blacklist it, making it unable to access AT&T’s voice or data network. If the phone is ever recovered, only the person who submitted the blacklist request can whitelist the phone again.

This new service will be available for all devices on AT&T’s network whether it be postpaid or prepaid (Go Phone). The Verge has also reported that the only way to add a phone to AT&T’s blacklist is by being in direct contact with an AT&T customer service representative. If the phone has a remote wiping application (ex. ‘Find My iPhone’)  enabled, the user must fully wipe the phone before it is blacklisted.

Source: The Verge

Andrew is a geek, Apple enthusiast, blogger and coffee lover from Chicago.