Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Dead cell phone? Others might be jammin' Pocket instrument is at forefront of wireless fight

From: [email-masked]
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 2004 11:33:25 -0500

Dead cell phone? Others might be jammin' Pocket instrument is at forefront of
wireless fight

By David Ho
Cox News Service
Saturday, February 14, 2004

NEW YORK -- A cafe customer fed up with
cell phone chatter sits in a bubble of
blissful silence as nearby patrons puzzle
over dead handsets.

A man tries to take a secret snapshot with
his camera phone, but gets only a blank
screen.

A priest imbues his church with a new
energy &mdash; the electromagnetic kind
&mdash; to keep his sermons serene and
free from beeps, chirps and rockin' ring
tones.

These are glimpses at a war of gadgets
quietly playing out around the world.

As millions embrace the freedoms of mobile
communications, some people and
companies are pushing back against the
tide. They are fighting technology with
technology, using detectors, jammers and
other gizmos to defend privacy, security
and sometimes sanity.

Jamming cell phones is illegal in the
United States, but with pocket-sized
jammers sold online by foreign companies
and even on eBay, and the military and
government already using such devices, the
wireless fight is already here.

"It's like the battle between the radar
detector and radar guns. It keeps on
escalating," said Jeff Kagan, an
independent telecommunications analyst
based in Atlanta. He said the need for such
devices is prompted by the "double-edged
sword of technology."

"The inventor of the cell phone never
thought about the fact that people would be
using them constantly and impeding on
other people's privacy," he said. "The
inventor of the camera phone never
thought about the fact that they would be
used in locker rooms and other
inappropriate places."

Jamming a cell phone, essentially a
two-way radio, is relatively straightforward.

Jammers typically disrupt the
communication between handsets and
cellular towers by flooding an area with
interference or selectively blocking signals
by broadcasting on the same frequencies
that phones use. Some jammers may have
to be as smart as cell phones, which try to
increase power or hop to other radio
channels to avoid interference.

Depending on their power, jammers can
disrupt communications in an area
spanning a few yards or across several
miles.

Commercial jammers have been sold
overseas for years, and some Internet
postings even offer instructions on building
homemade models.

The Federal Communications Commission
prohibits people in the United States from
building, selling, operating or importing
radio jamming devices. People who violate
this provision of a 70-year-old
communications law face up to a year in
prison and fines of $11,000 for each
violation.

However, FCC officials say they have
received very few complaints about jammed
cell phones and have never taken action
against anyone for that violation.

Those in the jammer industry say
individuals use low-powered devices with
little fear of reprisals, because it's difficult,
if not impossible, for a caller to distinguish
between a jammed signal and a normal cell
phone dead zone.

Despite that, the U.S. law does deter
jammer use and limits its spread among
consumers, said Kagan, the analyst.

The wireless industry says jamming devices
endanger the public.

"One hundred and fifty million Americans
rely on wireless phones. If those phones are
jammed, doctors might miss calls from
hospitals or parents could miss emergency
calls from baby sitters," said Travis Larson,
spokesman for the Cellular
Telecommunications and Internet
Association.

Larson said that in order to cut down on
the annoyances of cell phone use,
customers should use their "mute button,
volume control, vibrate mode, voice mail
and an on-off button" when appropriate.

He said jamming a specific area where
silence is expected, such as a movie
theater, is still a risk even with warning
signs.

"Jammers may leak into other adjacent
frequency bands, blocking public safety
radio signals used by police officers and fire
fighters," he said.

But safety concerns, courtesy suggestions
and the law haven't stopped people from
buying jammers.

British firm Global Gadget UK Ltd. sells to
people in other countries an array of
jamming and detection products, including
a portable jammer disguised as a cell phone
that can disrupt cellular communication up
to 45 feet away from the user.

"You will be able to silence those anti-social
types who insist on using their mobile
phones in the most indiscreet way," an
Internet ad for the product says. "The
beauty is that they will not know it is you
that has switched them off! All they will see
is that their signal has dropped."

Michael Menage, the company's director,
said he sells hundreds of pocket jammers
to people in the United States, which is his
biggest market. Each costs about $320.

"They're illegal to use over there. People are
still quite keen to buy them," Menage said.
He said he has sold to the U.S. military, but
most customers are individuals or small
businesses tired of cellular distractions.

He said some businessmen also use
jammers to keep meetings quiet or to
disable potential eavesdropping devices,
particularly cell phones rigged to be bugs.

While also illegal in England, jammers are
more widely used in other parts of the
world, including the Middle East, Africa,
Asia and some parts of Europe. They are
blocking phone calls in theaters,
restaurants, libraries, prisons and religious
buildings like mosques and churches.

Jamming also has long had a military and
security function.

Law enforcement officers have used
jammers to block mobile communications
in dangerous situations, such as isolating
hostage takers or protecting government
officials on the move.

Jamming is used by U.S. troop convoys in
Iraq to protect against remotely detonated
roadside bombs. Some bombs may use cell
phones as wireless triggers, and a jamming
signal can stop or delay an explosion.

Pakistani intelligence officials say jamming
devices in the motorcade of Pakistan's
President Pervez Musharraf delayed the
detonation of a huge bomb that blew up
moments after his car passed over a bridge
on Dec. 14.

For consumers and businesses, the latest
social and technical battlefield is the world
of picture phones. The ability to covertly
snap and transmit candid images almost
anywhere at any time has seemingly
overnight blurred the lines between public
and private space.

About 6 million picture phones were sold to
U.S. consumers in 2003, a number
expected to double this year. Overseas sales
are far higher.

With revealing or embarrassing photos of
people appearing on the Internet without
their knowledge, locations around the
nation have banned camera phones,
including many health clubs and schools.
Sensitive government and corporate
buildings also are trying keep the phones
out, and a handful of states are considering
new laws to limit their use.

A technological countermeasure is on the
way. Iceberg Systems Ltd., a British firm, is
rolling out a system called Safe Haven that
disables the camera portion of a phone
while leaving its other functions alone.
Locations using such "privacy zones" would
broadcast a shutdown signal to specially
equipped picture phones or digital cameras.

While current models without the receiving
technology would not be affected, the brief
lifetime of a handset before it is replaced
means "it would not take long for all
phones on the market to be Safe Haven
approved," said Patrick Snow, director of
Iceberg Systems.

He said the company is in negotiations with
handset makers, governments and
corporations to deploy the technology and
plans to launch the product later this year.
He said one large U.S. company is
considering an earlier beta test of the
system.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/business/content/business/daily/0215cellphone.html

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