When cellular telephones made their debut 26 years ago, their inventors probably didn’t think they’d created the most annoying piece of technology in modern history, except for, perhaps, the car alarm.
Inconsiderate cell phone users are irritating during movies and romantic dinners, but worse are those who callously ignore signs not to use mobile phones in places like hospitals, where cell phone signals could interfere with equipment.
Local cell phone jammers seem like the ideal solution. But are they? .The technology is clearly seeing more demand, but mainly in places where the ringing of phones or the emissions of the phone might cause problems with sensitive equipment . The issue of enforcing etiquette is another matter entirely.
What happens when phones are disabled in places where the noise of the call, not its transmission, is the problem . This might come into legal issues , because doctors and ‘on-call’ folks would be kept from critical communication.
Currently, cell phone jamming devices are illegal in North America, but they are seeing good sales abroad.
How it Works
According to Dave Derosier, CEO of Cell-Block-R, jamming disrupts telecommunications by overpowering the signals from the cellular handsets with electronic noise to cause interference. Today’s cellular phones are designed to raise their power when this happens, at which point the jammers increase their power, and so on, until eventually the jammer wins. Other RF devices, including two-way radios and pacemakers, might be affected in the crossfire.
Derosier pointed out that his company’s product is not a jammer, but a blocker. The difference, he said, is that the Cell-Block-R control Unit acts as a kind of decoy cellular tower. “The Control Unit fools the phone into thinking that it is the best tower to communicate with, and in so doing, removes the cell phone from the regular network. Any incoming calls are just referred to voice mail.”
Blocking the Good with the Bad
Whether this technology could jam or block more than mere cell phone calls is a concern of Travis Larson, spokesperson for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA). “The airwaves are owned by the American public and licensed for use by the FCC,” said Larson. He stressed that using any kind of signal-blocking device is akin to building a barricade across a highway because you don’t like the noise the traffic creates.
More importantly, Larson emphasized that not only do many of the jammers that are commercially available overseas block many types of wireless communication, including emergency radios, but, “There is bleed, so a jamming device could end up blocking other critical communication,” outside of the designated jamming area.
While clearing the air of annoying ringers and loud conversations at inappropriate times sounds great, Cell-Block-R’s Derosier acknowledged that this technology needs to be used responsibly. He said that the public must be informed (or warned) upon entering a restricted area, and, “that any methods used to prevent the use of cell phones within an enclosed space be completely contained inside that space.”
Such disclaimers are unlikely to dissuade the CTIA from their opinion. “The wireless industry hopes that these jammers don’t increase in use,” said CTIA’s Larson, who stressed that blocking incoming and outgoing signals is not only illegal, but also irresponsible. “Indirectly, it could end up harming the ability to notify the police and hinder the efforts to reach a doctor or paramedics during an emergency.”
Not being able to call 911 inside a cineplex seems an extreme trade-off for a ringless night at the movies. Until technology can address these issues, we’ll probably just have to make do with a more old-fashioned solution: good manners.
You’re at the movies and an important part of the movie is about to happen. All of a sudden all you hear is a ringing cell phone. Does this make you angry?
You’re at a restaurant and you are ready to ask your girlfriend to marry you. You are in mid-stream saying, “Will you ….” All you can hear is the ringing of a cell phone. Does this make you angry?
Often the ringing of a cell phone creates havoc with different activities and people. Imagine a cell phone ringing during the middle of a church service or a funeral. When cell phones were first created no one thought about the inconvenience or the annoyance of the ringing of a cell phone. Now more and more people own a cell phone and they are becoming quite annoying to many people. Cell phones are being used in hospitals where there are signs that clearly state not to use the cell phone because they could interfere with life-saving equipment.
Across the globe, cell phones disturb plays, concerts and films. Phones ring out during funerals and weddings. They bleep and buzz in trains, restaurants and bathrooms. Cell-phone-free zones, polite requests, even icy glares can't seem to stop the ringing and consequent jabbering.
What Is a Cellular Phone Jammer?
It is a device that jams the downlink frequencies on different cellular phone systems. It prevents a person from making or receiving cellular phone calls within a certain radius. Both advanced electronic and RF technical skills are required. The problem is these cellular phone jammers may block other forms of communication or technology.
Within their operating radius, jammers prevent wireless phones from contacting a cellular radio tower. The affected phone behaves as it would any place where reception is too poor to carry a call.
Cell phone jammers have to be sophisticated enough to squelch phone signals without interfering with other devices, from garage door openers to medical equipment. In addition, they must operate at power levels high enough to overcome cell phone signals, but not so high that the jamming effect leaks outside the intended coverage area.
Cell phone jammers are readily available on the Internet. Many can be battery-powered and fit in a pocket or briefcase for people who would like to enjoy a meal, movie or church service in peace.
DRAWBACKS
In recent months, there's been no shortage of incidents - some with terrible consequences - that have illustrated the dangers of cell phones illicitly being used by inmates in correctional facilities. In France, inmates used cell phones to plan and execute an elaborate escape including the use of a helicopter and rope ladders. After their escape, the inmates continued to use cell phones to co-ordinate their activities. In Israel, incarcerated members of the Hamas terrorist group have continued to run their operations using smuggled cell phones.
Officials in California's facilities regularly report problems with their inmate population using cell phones to conduct "gang business" from behind bars. January's prison riots in Brazil - which began simultaneously across five facilities in and around Sao Paulo and left several hundred dead and wounded - were coordinated using cell phones. The inmate's strategy of synchronised riots - only possible with real-time communications - was deliberately designed to cripple the state's single incident response team.
However, there is plenty of technology available commercially to help detect and thwart the use of cell phones or other wireless communication devices within correctional facilities.
There are several types of devices that can block or interfere with wireless communications:
· Passive jamming devices - by way of electromagnetic interference (EMI) suppression techniques, a defined space is constructed in a way that prevents the transmission or reception of radio signals (in a shielded room commonly known as a Faraday Cage);
· Jamming devices - using radio frequency (RF) interference, the device prevents pagers and mobile phones from transmitting or receiving calls by transmitting a jamming signal, usually on the same frequency but at a greater power than the regular cell phone communications;
· Intelligent disablers - using a signal detection function, the device communicates with the base station of the cell phone’s service provider and indicates that the phone is in a quiet zone (no signal available);
· Intelligent beacon disablers - in a similar beacon-like operation, the device instructs any compatible phone to disable its ringer or its volume controls;
· Direct receive and transmit jammers - by way of base-station features, the device interacts with the operation of local mobile phones in its proximity to break or unhook the communications link, before returning to a passive mode.
However, while most of these devices are available and are not particularly expensive - a short-range cell phone jammer can be purchased for under US$250 - their use is invariably illegal, or under such heavy regulatory laws that they become impractical. There is a clear recognition of these problems among prison agencies, as these comments show, but little consensus on how best to proceed.
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