[cookcounty]

"I'm a Amateur Radio operator (HAM) and I could build a transmitter small enough to fit inside a pen."

Could you sit in Dearborn Michigan and blow up bombs simultaneously in New York, Chicago and LA with it?????

[ArmstedFragg]

Look at the total number of phones. A dozen would be all you'd need if you were using them as remote detonators. And look at how wide the geographic area is.

This is either directly related to communications needs (Note that the first reports of mass purchases were at roughly the time the NYTimes disclosed the NSA monitoring), or they've found a way to hack the system and they're going to make money selling "no fee phones" in the black market.

[HiTech RedNeck]

From the time of activation, or otherwise randomly, telemarketers should be furnished the numbers of the phones. If the phone could be called at any time then bomb makers would be thrown off their timing.

All these precautions go down the tubes however if the bomb makers are willing to perish with their bombs. Then any old cell phone will do: “Hello, Ahmed! Push the button!” “Yes sir, Allah here I come!”