Not surprising.... PhoneJammer.com has a two month backlog on some products. I'm almost tempted to get one for the train. 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.
does this work for those assholes that play gangsta rap & new R&B on their shitty little nokias dangling from thier necks? If so I want one for tomorrow morning. Though I am tempted to get one anyone...
i want one. i would use it when i'm taking the commuter train. i think the girl mentioned in the story always sits next to me.
In my days of train riding I had headphones so to avoid this sort of thing. I'd use it more as a prank than some sort of vigilante justice device. Ya know, just for giggles. I'd actually use it more in a retail store to the rude customer on their phone while at the counter holding everyone up.
Major pet peeve of mine. I've been fantasizing about one of these gadgets for a long time, but ... they are illegal. It amazes me how obnoxious people are. Most of the loud cell-phone people I hear on public transportation are just airheads blabbing about nothing. Jam them all!
Isn't buying a cell phone jammer just a passive aggressive and more expensive solution to the problem, though? Just ask the person politely to keep it down, or ask people to turn them off in certain situations. The restaurant owner and the therapist cited in the article didn't have to go to those lengths. And whatever health risks cell phones might pose would also a possibility for the jamming devices, right?
Also something I thought of against it is, what if in that 30 foot range there's someone being totally polite, not talking loud and or having an important conversation? Sure, you wanna screw the jerk-hole, but also you may be screwing someone who's doing no wrong or in a really important situation.
Good point. That therapist's office could be next to another doctor who needs to get pages from a hospital on his cell phone, and now there's something interfering with it. To me it seems like using these jammers are just as antisocial as being rude and talking loudly on one's cell phone.
Not sure that I'd want the device in my shirt pocket sending out radio signals, but in a bag, sure. In reality, I'd probably never get one, but it would be amusing to play with one for a day or two and cause mischief. BTW, restaurants and other establishments could build copper mesh into the walls and it would achieve the same results. More expensive yet legal. Go figure.
My thoughts exactly. What if someone using their phone in that same area is in some sort of emergency situation and then WHAM! you cut them off and it causes something serious to happen. You should just lean over to the inconsiderate person and tell them to shut it. No harm no foul. I also feel it is just another thing that increase the lack of people skills that most have today by avoiding confrontation with the other person.
If a business did this, and posted signs that cell phones would not work there, I'd say something like that was fair.
It's the norm in Japan to keep your cell phone conversation to zero whilst you are traveling on public transport. There are signs everywhere politely telling you to shut it. I love it. Just today I was in a hospital with my wife. One girl had her mobile on 3G TV watching it on full blast laughing her head off, but not using her headphones. Another girl from China talking her head off in Mandarin. I couldn't even hear the TV that they had in the waiting room. Drove me insane.
Have you tried this? It doesn't work. Inconsiderate is inconsiderate. You ask them to tone it down and they'll ratchet it up. I've had a-holes try to fight me for asking them to be quiet. I would love to get one of these jammers, but don't want my purchase to be traceable.
Do people play mp3's on their phones over in the US, very very loud on public transport? Drive me friggin' insane.
I've seen it a few times. That and some people have those walkie-talkie phones that amplify the conversation (and make a loud beep between messages) so they don't have to hold it up to their ears. I can deal with loud babies, conversations, etc. but I was shocked to see this.
Or somebody with a pacemaker. You really want to take the chance that the jamming device you bought illegally over the internet might interrupt some old guy's pacemaker? It's not likely, but it's not a chance I'd like to take. My real concern with these devices, though, is their obvious criminal use.
Politely or otherwise asking someone to keep their yapping down on SF MUNI is likely to get you assaulted. When people use the "what if there's an emergency?" argument, I'm reminded that it wasn't so long ago that people didn't have cell phones at all. For too many people, it's a needless addiction. Unlike so many other needless addictions like toy collecting, it's seriously "in your face" when the people who don't know how to modulate their volume (or who are showing off) yap and yap and yap. I certainly see both sides of the argument but am cool with my cranky self on this issue. I'm required to carry a cell phone 24/7 related to my job and somehow manage to use it appropriately without bothering others unduly. I know plenty of others in the same predicament. We don't just yap for no better reason when within earshot of others. Necessary calls are efficient and un-ostentatious. Anyway, I'm not going to go invest in an illegal jammer but it is a satisfying fantasy.
Persoanlly, i dont want anyone hearing my private conversations, so whenever I make or get a call when Im out i either just say 'call u back' or find some nook somewhere with no people. cell phone yakkers are exactly the same as the douches that like to 'share their really loud car stereos'. powerless jackholes in real life who feel some weird need to be noisy. I dont get too mad, as I figure the sad reality of their lame normal ass life is punishment enough for their sins.
true, the same douches that walk extra slow across the crosswalk to have that 1 minute a day when they are in charge. seems sad the only power you have in life is to slow traffic while you cross the street or lot ps - It also really bugs me when people parallel park in 2 spots cause they cant figure out where 1 spot starts and the next ends. do people just not care anymore??
I have no beef with pedestrians, they deserve right of way I think. The super loud car stereo guys tho...its always a man. and its always either super shitty disco music or Norteño, at least around here. I mean, what are they 12 and just go their first car? man, relax. no one cares about your shitty Supra or whatever. SURPLUS BACHELOR MALES. thats what war is for...go away and die. no class.
urg pedestrians.. lol - j/k. back to the jammers - interesting idea, I coulden't justify using one - I would be cool to see someone talking real loud on their phone next to someone playing MP3s - just trying to outdo eachother. haha.
Yeah, that really bad non-musical techno is incredibly irritating. If someone's listening to it on a personal device, all you hear is computerized snare doing the exact same pattern over and over. If it's a car, you get the air-sculpting subwoofer, which too many people confuse with bass. I'm glad I don't do speed. I think maybe it's a requirement for actually playing that stuff outside of a club. I love good Norteño music but unless it's acoustic the bass tends to be very dominant in the mix. With Banda it's even scarier because you've got a gigantic oompah brass section blaring on top of the thumpthump, and usually a singer on a horse who has a serious intonation problem. Long story short, consideration for others got lost along the path to "look at me! Look at me!" I was never into that dippy Desiderata hoax but maybe a dose of the "go placidly among the noise and haste" credo would be good to re-introduce into the popular culture. Dang I'm cranky today. I blame allergies. And cell phones.
everybody on this thread sounds like a bunch of cranky old men... my advice,,,move out of the city or suburbs....... & onto a farm or some mountain top...... i am not one to blab into my phone in public,,,but seriously,,,if you live in a big city...get used to the noise and crowded quarters or get out....
