Cell-Phone Wars

Makarand writes "According to this article in the Houston Chronicle people fed up with cell phone chatter have declared war against cell phones. They are arming themselves with detectors, jammers and other gizmos to defend privacy, security, sanity and blissful silence. Although jamming cell phones is not legal in the US, pocket-sized jammers are available online and even on eBay. Cell-phone jammers typically work by disrupting the communication between handsets and cellular towers by flooding an area with interference or selectively blocking signals by broadcasting on frequencies used by these phones. The FCC has received very few complaints about jammed cell phones and has never taken action against anyone for that violation."

Comments

Electronic warfare

[shamir_k]

Electronic Warfare for the common masses. Just another example of civilian uses of orginially military technologies.

Emergencies

[Anonymous Coward]

What happens when one of these frequency jammers is in effect in an area where there has been an accident (or robbery, or some other emergency), and the only way of getting help is a cell phone?