A man in Fanxian, Henan, lost a flip phone in 2019 at a snack shop. On May 3, 2024, he unexpectedly received a factory SMS showing the phone had powered on and transmitted its location and photo. With police and community help, he retrieved it.

Social Context

Older GSM phones with basic tracking modules remain functional for years on legacy networks. China Mobile’s 2024 ‘Legacy Device Reconnect’ initiative reactivated dormant SIMs on 2G/3G fallback networks, enabling location retrieval for devices reported lost before network sunsetting.

Safety Tip

Users should register all mobile devices—including legacy ones—with the MIIT Equipment Database, enabling automatic IMEI blacklisting and location ping upon unexpected network reconnection.