The wireless industry wants the Federal Communications Commission to adopt a get-tough policy by explicitly outlawing the sale and use of equipment designed to hinder or enhance cellphone calls.
“Unfortunately, the reliability of all wireless communications-both commercial and public-safety communications in bands adjacent to commercial mobile radio services frequencies-is now at risk of being severely undermined by the marketing and use of devices that transmit radio signals on frequencies that are licensed for commercial wireless services,” cellphone industry association CTIA stated in its petition for declaratory ruling. “While the Communications Act and the commission’s rules prohibit intentional interference with wireless communications, the FCC recently has received requests to operate or liberalize the use of jamming equipment that fail to acknowledge the potential resulting harms-including denying the public and a broad range of first responders access to reliable wireless communications in emergency situations.”
Among the requests, according to CTIA, are those filed by The GEO Group Inc. in a petition for forbearance and CellAntenna Corp. in a petition for rulemaking.
CTIA also said there is a growing trend of businesses and individuals taking it upon themselves to secure clearer communications by installing wireless boosters and repeaters.
The law prohibits the sale and operation of jamming equipment, though leeway is accorded to the federal government. CTIA said that despite repeated FCC pronouncements of its policy and fines against violators, cellular jammers continue to be prevalent in the United States. One possible explanation is demand from the public that at once loves mobile phones, but cannot stand people using phones in movies, restaurants and other public places. The love-hate relationship is an undeniable, inconvenient truth of the wireless age. In addition to cutting off an annoying cellphone conversation, jammers can be useful in preventing bombs-increasingly detonated by cellphone signals-from exploding.
Use requested for prisons
CTIA argued the GEO Group, a Boca Ratonbased global company specializing in privatizing correctional facilities, is actually asking the FCC to revise the rule exempting the federal government from the jamming ban such that state and local governments could use devices to prevent inmates from using cellphones to engage in illicit activities or intimidate members of the public.
The trade group said such a practice would discriminate against wireless subscribers in neighboring areas as well as hinder communications by prison employees.
CTIA downplayed CellAntenna’s reliance on the Homeland Security Act to justify its request for relaxation of the jammer limitation.
CellAntenna, with main offices in Coral Gables, Fla. and the United Kingdom, markets wireless boosters and sells cellular jammers to the federal government. The company wants the ability to expand the market to state and local governments. In addition to its petition for rulemaking at the FCC, CellAntenna last year sued the FCC in federal court in Florida in hopes of getting a decision allowing jammer sales to state and local governments.
In its petition, CTIA said that the HSA would not require the Department of Homeland Security to make CellAntenna’s equipment available to state and local governments, particularly where the Communications Act forbids it.
