A Personal Unlock Code (PUC), also known as a PIN Unlocked Key (PUK), is used in 3GPP mobile phones to reset a personal identification number (PIN) that has been lost or forgotten.
Most mobile telephones offer the feature of PIN (PIN) protection. After switching on the phone, if the PIN security function is active, the user is requested to enter a 4-8 digit PIN enabling the phone's non-emergency calling functions. If the wrong PIN is typed in more than three times, either the SIM card, the device or both become locked. They can be reverted to their original unlocked state by entering a PUC, provided by the service operator through verification. If the wrong PUC is entered ten times in a row, the device will become permanently blocked and unrecoverable, requiring a new SIM card. Cellular phone users are therefore advised by most providers to keep their PUC written down in a safe place separate from the device.
The PUC (PUK) is a SIM-specific code assigned by the service provider. It is near-impossible to guess and enter it; thus, if a user does not know his or her PUC and is prompted for it, it should be obtained from the service provider.
Once you enter the PUK code, you must set a pin. The PUK (Personal Unblocking Key) and PUK2 are used to unlock the PIN and PIN 2 codes respectively if your SIM card is blocked.
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or code:
“The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium—that is, of any extension of ourselves—result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“...I had grown up in a world that was dominated by immature age. Not by vigorous immaturity, but by immaturity that was old and tired and prudent, that loved ritual and rubric, and was utterly wanting in curiosity about the new and the strange. Its era has passed away, and the world it made has crumbled around us. Its finest creation, a code of manners, has been ridiculed and discarded.”
—Ellen Glasgow (1873–1945)