Man Silences Yammering Cellphone Talk With Push of a Button

Post Reply New Topic

November 4, 2007
Devices Enforce Silence of Cellphones, Illegally
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.

Copyright 2007 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/04/techn ... nted=print

"Nuzzink in zer vurld can ztop me now!! !! !"


Why does the FCC ban these things, hmm? So, they fine you $5000 every time you say "f***", and $11000 for using one of these.....

I bought one of those gadgets. It wasn't powerful enough to silence phones where there was a strong signal. But that was two years ago. They have a new generation of these things, so they might be able to knock out any call, despite the signal strength.

I have to confess, I felt like a mad scientist, being able to push that button and stop the yammering ! !!

it would be great if they could make these jammers stop sound [eg,music being played out loud] on the phones to,so public transport becomes more accessible.

I can understand why sometimes people would wish to use these; I know there are certainly those who are rude with their cell phones, and I've been unfortunately close to some of them. However, I don't think these are good devices; people can get other calls on their cell phones, emergency calls, and to block their signal (even unintentionally; blocking one person's will block more, if they're in the radius) would be wrong. Sure, maybe it'll shut up the loud person beside you, but if it also shuts up the person who's getting a call from a relative/friend who's in a lot of trouble... And as annoying as some may be, there are places where people should be able to talk to others if they choose.

I might just have to pick one of these up.

Depends on the radius you're dealing with. I mean I have had people really close to me talking really loudly into one of those things. He wouldn't talk that loud to me, but he's talking at me. It's very rude. Who gets emergency calls anyways? You usually leave the room if it's a real emergency. MOst people use the phone for chat or because they're too lazy to understand directions or write a shopping list. How about the date where one of them is on the phone?

I hate when people talk on their phones loudly around others, and when I get a call like on friday when I was at the bank i am polite enough to simply say 'ill call you back' or not pick up at all, i wait till i get outside, back in my car.

I like the divices, they should equip all public places with them constantly on, like the 'no call zone'

yep, you can't make any calls so the first thing you should do is call him


I think its a good idea they are banned, though I can definately see benefit to using them in certain situations. Just think how many times someone was involved in a kidnappin/robbing/etc and the only reason the police got there in time was because they were able to make a stealth cell phone call. Now apply that same concept to even larger settings and just think what one could potentially do if they just shut off the ability to use cellphones. ITs pretty much impossible to find a payphone nowadays, and I know alot of home where the only phones are cell phones.

It would be reasonable, IMO, to just have no call zones in places like schools, libraries, etc. It is exceedingly annoying to be intensely concentrating on something at the public library, and have some idiot's phone ring, with the volume loud enough to be heard on the second floor, and then they proceed to talk as loudly as if they are in a crowded dance club. Although there is a sign in the library in my town that clearly says to only make and accept calls in the lobby, people ignore it.

Not only should these devices be legal, but they should be automatically implemented in restaurants, libraries, and other public places where inappropriate use of cellphones is rampant.

I know, how about a device that shuts people up for good, i.e., talking; no matter how soft, it's just as infuriating (you can see the target of said speech).

People want to control others; it's such a...human thing (see: "power").

I meltdown in public when I look at people, when I hear people; I ain't going to stop them from doing such, it's my problem, not theirs.

The argument that these devices could stop an emergency call is pretty thin. I can't count the times I've been in the grocery, and had to listen to someone yelling in their cellphone "the what? the pink and green cereal? which?". I'll dig mine out of storage now and charge it up, just to have a go at these cretins.

There is an alternative: a man on a crowded commuter train, who had annoyed his fellow passengers by loudly telling his wife, through his cell phone, why he would be late, was interrupted by a woman sitting next to him. She leaned over and purred into the phone "Oh, forget her, darling, come back to bed".

Yeah!

I just want a jammer for bass sound waves, so I can live in peace in my apartment while my upstairs neighbor is boppin' day and night to heavy R&B. She once did it past 4AM! I finally called the police on her. She turns it down now, but I can still hear the constant thump, thump, thump several hours per day.

I thought of buying a large megaphone, some hearing protection, and aiming the phone at my ceiling, calmly speaking: "Please turn your music down", in a police-like tone. It's bad enough that I can hear every step she takes, and I watch as my ceiling and ceiling fan bounce up and down with whatever she's doing up there. Plus, every time she takes a shower, small pieces of my ceiling fall into my bathtub. I have to clean it out every night! The apartment crew has "fixed" this problem twice, but evidently, screwing drainage pipes together properly is a lit-tle out of their competence range.