Taliban highlights militants' mobile tracking fear

Recent investigations and trials suggest militants are taking the security advice to heart.

Parviz Khan, a British-Pakistani dual national who admitted plotting to kidnap and behead a Muslim British soldier and shipping militant equipment to Pakistan, used a "multiplicity" of mobile phones and SIM cards to try to keep a step ahead of the authorities, a British court was told this month.

And analysts believe that senior leaders of al Qaeda do not use either mobile or satellite phones at all in order to avoid detection, instead relying on people to carry messages by word of mouth.