Cell phone jammers

[Brownian Motion]

The New York Times

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November 4, 2007

Devices Enforce Cellular Silence, Sweet but Illegal

By MATT RICHTEL

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 2 — One afternoon in early September, an architect boarded his commuter train and became a cellphone vigilante. He sat down next to a 20-something woman who he said was “blabbing away” into her phone.

“She was using the word ‘like’ all the time. She sounded like a Valley Girl,” said the architect, Andrew, who declined to give his last name because what he did next was illegal.

Andrew reached into his shirt pocket and pushed a button on a black device the size of a cigarette pack. It sent out a powerful radio signal that cut off the chatterer’s cellphone transmission — and any others in a 30-foot radius.

“She kept talking into her phone for about 30 seconds before she realized there was no one listening on the other end,” he said. His reaction when he first discovered he could wield such power? “Oh, holy moly! Deliverance.”

As cellphone use has skyrocketed, making it hard to avoid hearing half a conversation in many public places, a small but growing band of rebels is turning to a blunt countermeasure: the cellphone jammer, a gadget that renders nearby mobile devices impotent.

The technology is not new, but overseas exporters of jammers say demand is rising and they are sending hundreds of them a month into the United States — prompting scrutiny from federal regulators and new concern last week from the cellphone industry. The buyers include owners of cafes and hair salons, hoteliers, public speakers, theater operators, bus drivers and, increasingly, commuters on public transportation.

The development is creating a battle for control of the airspace within earshot. And the damage is collateral. Insensitive talkers impose their racket on the defenseless, while jammers punish not just the offender, but also more discreet chatterers.

“If anything characterizes the 21st century, it’s our inability to restrain ourselves for the benefit of other people,” said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University. “The cellphone talker thinks his rights go above that of people around him, and the jammer thinks his are the more important rights.”

The jamming technology works by sending out a radio signal so powerful that phones are overwhelmed and cannot communicate with cell towers. The range varies from several feet to several yards, and the devices cost from $50 to several hundred dollars. Larger models can be left on to create a no-call zone.

Using the jammers is illegal in the United States. The radio frequencies used by cellphone carriers are protected, just like those used by television and radio broadcasters.

The Federal Communication Commission says people who use cellphone jammers could be fined up to $11,000 for a first offense. Its enforcement bureau has prosecuted a handful of American companies for distributing the gadgets — and it also pursues their users.

Investigators from the F.C.C. and Verizon Wireless visited an upscale restaurant in Maryland over the last year, the restaurant owner said. The owner, who declined to be named, said he bought a powerful jammer for $1,000 because he was tired of his employees focusing on their phones rather than customers.

“I told them: put away your phones, put away your phones, put away your phones,” he said. They ignored him.

The owner said the F.C.C. investigator hung around for a week, using special equipment designed to detect jammers. But the owner had turned his off.

The Verizon investigator was similarly unsuccessful. “He went to everyone in town and gave them his number and said if they were having trouble, they should call him right away,” the owner said. He said he has since stopped using the jammer.

Of course, it would be harder to detect the use of smaller battery-operated jammers like those used by disgruntled commuters.

An F.C.C. spokesman, Clyde Ensslin, declined to comment on the issue or the case in Maryland.

Cellphone carriers pay tens of billions of dollars to lease frequencies from the government with an understanding that others will not interfere with their signals. And there are other costs on top of that. Verizon Wireless, for example, spends $6.5 billion a year to build and maintain its network.

“It’s counterintuitive that when the demand is clear and strong from wireless consumers for improved cell coverage, that these kinds of devices are finding a market,” said Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon spokesman. The carriers also raise a public safety issue: jammers could be used by criminals to stop people from communicating in an emergency.

In evidence of the intensifying debate over the devices, CTIA, the main cellular phone industry association, asked the F.C.C. on Friday to maintain the illegality of jamming and to continue to pursue violators. It said the move was a response to requests by two companies for permission to use jammers in specific situations, like in jails.

Individuals using jammers express some guilt about their sabotage, but some clearly have a prankster side, along with some mean-spirited cellphone schadenfreude. “Just watching those dumb teens at the mall get their calls dropped is worth it. Can you hear me now? NO! Good,” the purchaser of a jammer wrote last month in a review on a Web site called DealExtreme.

Gary, a therapist in Ohio who also declined to give his last name, citing the illegality of the devices, says jamming is necessary to do his job effectively. He runs group therapy sessions for sufferers of eating disorders. In one session, a woman’s confession was rudely interrupted.

“She was talking about sexual abuse,” Gary said. “Someone’s cellphone went off and they carried on a conversation.”

“There’s no etiquette,” he said. “It’s a pandemic.”

Gary said phone calls interrupted therapy all the time, despite a no-phones policy. Four months ago, he paid $200 for a jammer, which he placed surreptitiously on one side of the room. He tells patients that if they are expecting an emergency call, they should give out the front desk’s number. He has not told them about the jammer.

Gary bought his jammer from a Web site based in London called PhoneJammer.com. Victor McCormack, the site’s operator, says he ships roughly 400 jammers a month into the United States, up from 300 a year ago. Orders for holiday gifts, he said, have exceeded 2,000.

Kumaar Thakkar, who lives in Mumbai, India, and sells jammers online, said he exported 20 a month to the United States, twice as many as a year ago. Clients, he said, include owners of cafes and hair salons, and a New York school bus driver named Dan.

“The kids think they are sneaky by hiding low in the seats and using their phones,” Dan wrote in an e-mail message to Mr. Thakkar thanking him for selling the jammer. “Now the kids can’t figure out why their phones don’t work, but can’t ask because they will get in trouble! It’s fun to watch them try to get a signal.”

Andrew, the San Francisco-area architect, said using his jammer was initially fun, and then became a practical way to get some quiet on the train. Now he uses it more judiciously.

“At this point, just knowing I have the power to cut somebody off is satisfaction enough,” he said.

Edited November 4, 2007 by Brownian Motion

[7/4]

It would be nice to turn one on while I was crawling through traffic. It might open up that fast lane.

[JSngry]

Anybody see the recent episode of Curb... where Larry gets seated next to a guy blabbing away on his cell? Larry's response - just start talking loudly to no one in particular, enough to disrupt/piss of the blabber.

[catesta]

“There’s no etiquette,” he said. “It’s a pandemic.”

Ain't it the truth.

A bunch of douchebags talking about nothing.

It's funny how most will drop whatever they're doing to answer a cell phone. Ring! Ring! "Hey you, what are doing? Oh my god, I just dropped my grocery bags when I was trying to answer the phone, ha ha....., yeah the eggs broke and so did the wine bottle...., anyways what's up with you? WHAT? YOU'RE BREAKING UP...., BECAUSE MY PHONE IS A PIECE OF SHIT", I SAID MY PHONE IS A PIECE OF SHIT! Hey, let me call you right back, Doug is on the other line".

[catesta]

Anybody see the recent episode of Curb... where Larry gets seated next to a guy blabbing away on his cell? Larry's response - just start talking loudly to no one in particular, enough to disrupt/piss of the blabber.

he he

Yeah, funny shit.

[MoGrubb]

Geez, I ain't even got a cellphone yet and they've already invented a way to mess it up.

[7/4]

Geez, I ain't even got a cellphone yet and they've already invented a way to mess it up.

Don't worry, cell phones were fucked up before the scramblers were around.

[brownie]

Wish I could use one of those jammers when riding the Paris subways.

The underground here was a safe haven from cellphone intruders until a couple of years ago.

Now there are dozens of passengers chatting away at length during any subway rides.

Yes, I want one of those jammers

[Jazzmoose]

Two points:

First, this is just wrong. Taking the law into your own hands is always the wrong way to approach a situation. The audacity of the jammer to put his own rights ahead of that of the cell phone user is nothing short of meglomania.

Second, the article gives absolutely no information on how I can get one of these devices.

[Jim Alfredson]

Call me crazy, but I think it should be legal for a business to have a jammer that operates within the confines of their business. The airwaves are supposedly "public property" right? If they don't want the airwaves in their business being used for that purpose, then they should have that right.

[Alexander]

Call me crazy, but I think it should be legal for a business to have a jammer that operates within the confines of their business. The airwaves are supposedly "public property" right? If they don't want the airwaves in their business being used for that purpose, then they should have that right.

I think some places do have the ability to block cell reception. I've been in schools where you can't get a signal at all until you're off school grounds. I just assumed they were using some kind of jammer.

Edited November 4, 2007 by Alexander

[Jim Alfredson]

If it is illegal, how could they? I've been in buildings that are the same way (most of UofM's campus!) and I always figured they had jammers, but the article says they are illegal.

[connoisseur series500]

I'm taking the opposite approach and saying that if people are offended by cell phone talk, they can simply let the chatter know about it. They shouldn't go so far as jam everyone's frequencies like that.

Now I'm all for jamming the barking of my neighbor's dogs.

[mikeweil]

Call me crazy, but I think it should be legal for a business to have a jammer that operates within the confines of their business. The airwaves are supposedly "public property" right? If they don't want the airwaves in their business being used for that purpose, then they should have that right.

My thoughts exactly.

Therapists especially.

And musicians - heaven is a gig not interrupted by cell phones. But I hope recording equipment doesn't pick up the jammer signal - it does pick up radio waves and cell phone signals. So ....

Same goes for airplanes.

Edited November 4, 2007 by mikeweil

[JSngry]

Cells alone are potentially bad enough, but now with the Bluetooth things...

[alocispepraluger102]

“If anything characterizes the 21st century, it’s our inability to restrain ourselves for the benefit of other people,” said James Katz, director of the Center for Mobile Communication Studies at Rutgers University.

it's called rudeness, and makes one want to be even more introverted, hiding from most people in the world.

[Randy Twizzle]

There's a lo-tech way of dealing with cell phone assholes. This guy is my hero.

[Chuck Nessa]

Nomatter what anyone says, Cellphone Jammers is the best new band today!

[Dan Gould]

There's a lo-tech way of dealing with cell phone assholes. This guy is my hero.

That's your hero? A man who assaults women and anyone else who pisses him off? And who has the chutzpah to sue his victims for five million dollars for "a violation of his First Amendment rights, and alleged defamation, libel, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and an abuse of process."

You've got one fucked up definition of "hero" pal.

Not only is this guy a world class asshole but it sounds to me like he's swindled the taxpayers of New York for "disability" pay while being perfectly capable of assault and intimidation.

A thousand

[Randy Twizzle]

There's a lo-tech way of dealing with cell phone assholes. This guy is my hero.

That's your hero? A man who assaults women and anyone else who pisses him off? And who has the chutzpah to sue his victims for five million dollars for "a violation of his First Amendment rights, and alleged defamation, libel, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and an abuse of process."

You've got one fucked up definition of "hero" pal.

Not only is this guy a world class asshole but it sounds to me like he's swindled the taxpayers of New York for "disability" pay while being perfectly capable of assault and intimidation.

A thousand

Duly noted douche bag.

[Tim McG]

There's a lo-tech way of dealing with cell phone assholes. This guy is my hero.

That's your hero? A man who assaults women and anyone else who pisses him off? And who has the chutzpah to sue his victims for five million dollars for "a violation of his First Amendment rights, and alleged defamation, libel, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and an abuse of process."

You've got one fucked up definition of "hero" pal.

Not only is this guy a world class asshole but it sounds to me like he's swindled the taxpayers of New York for "disability" pay while being perfectly capable of assault and intimidation.

A thousand

Duly noted douche bag.

Nonetheless, cellphone addicts are the new crackheads....teenagers are the worst culprits. Especially, text messaging during class time.

As a teacher, I think we should have the right to take a kid's cellphone away, use up all their minutes, smash it into little tiny pieces then hand it back to them in a plastic baggie with a smiley face on it saying, "Have a Nice Day."

Edited November 5, 2007 by GoodSpeak

[7/4]

There's a lo-tech way of dealing with cell phone assholes. This guy is my hero.

That's your hero? A man who assaults women and anyone else who pisses him off? And who has the chutzpah to sue his victims for five million dollars for "a violation of his First Amendment rights, and alleged defamation, libel, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment and an abuse of process."

You've got one fucked up definition of "hero" pal.

Not only is this guy a world class asshole but it sounds to me like he's swindled the taxpayers of New York for "disability" pay while being perfectly capable of assault and intimidation.

A thousand

Duly noted douche bag.

I see Dan's making friends again.

[Jim Alfredson]

Gotta side with Dan on that one. The guy is a vigilante that intimidates people. No hero.

[Randy Twizzle]

Gotta side with Dan on that one. The guy is a vigilante that intimidates people. No hero.

No he's not a nice guy or someone you'd want to hang out with, and I was being ironic when I said he was my "hero" But if you spend half your life riding commuter trains it's possible to vicariously enjoy the antics of someone who's brave (or nutty) enough to stand up to the sniveling little creeps who can make the daily trip such an ordeal.

[Jazzmoose]

Gotta side with Dan on that one. The guy is a vigilante that intimidates people. No hero.

Yeah, sign me up as a douche bag as well. What a fuckwad...