France to Allow Cell Phone Jamming

ZuperDee writes "According to this article, the French industry minister has approved a decision to allow cinemas, concert halls and theaters to install cell phone jammers, on the condition that emergency calls can still get through."

Comments

Emergency Calls?

[SultanCemil]

How do they allow emergency calls through? Aren't most cell jammers simply frequency based white noise generators?

Re:Emergency Calls?

[LiquidCoooled]

I think thats the icing on the cake.

Being able to say "Yer sure" and not mean it all in the same breath.

Those wanting to block calls sort of get their way, and those who don't want it blocking get to smile as well.

I think this is the best all round decision.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[mmonkey]

I'm just guessing here, but maybe they could have an on-site picocell or something which the phones will associate with, and then control which calls the cell lets through? Just a thought.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[famebait]

No, GSM jammers of this type work by impersonating the local base stations by responding before them, but not actually letting anything through.

The systems have been available for a few years,
and are apparently very good at blocking out only a well defined area. The stumbling blocks have been entirely legal/regulatory.

I don't know if the available equipment handles it already, but there is no technical reason why the jammer couldn't engage slightly more thoroughly in the transaction and forward select calls.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[weighn]

i'd say they would use a white-noise generator and have a member of staff monitor slashdot for emergencies at which point they turn off the white-noise.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[leonmergen]

No it's not. It's irritating when the same (kind of) people always leave their mobiles running, the hip, young, gadget people having their latest top40 tune as their ring tone... now really, when some kind of polyphonic f*cked up version of Usher or whatever starts blasting at way-too-loud volume through a room, or even a cinema, i'm irritated. I turn my mobile off so I won't disturb anyone, I expect the same from others.

Is it really necessary to be reachable while you're at the cinema ? No. And if it is necessary, you shouldn't be at the cinema.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[Vellmont]

The only thing that comes to mind is having a special node at the theatre thats essentially a repeater (but doesn't ring the phone or allow outgoing calls to be made). Calls to anyone with a phone from a certain prefix or list of numbers (given to any emergency responders) is allowed through. Think of it like a cell-phone firewall.

If that's how they're planning on doing it I don't know. But there has to be some way of distinguishing emergency calls, or emergency cell phones from normal everyday calls/phones.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[pklong]

Your on to something, but you're not quite there.

Allow the cinemas to install their own Pico Cells in the theatres and jam the outside cells. The pico cell should connect them to the cinema's own mobile operator and charge them 20$ per minute.

They'll think twice next time they get their bill, inconsideratle little twerps ;)

Re:Emergency Calls?

[Pieroxy]

That is what I like about this new law. It doesn't force anyone to do anything. It does allow movie theaters to implement something, and the public will decide if they prefer going to a theater that allow cells or not.

And while it might or might not irritate you in a movie theater, think about a real theater, a classical concert or any other public performance where live artists are playing.

In any way, this will have a very democratic implementation: If people rush into these "early adopters" theaters that jam cells, more and more will adopt the system, and the mass will be pleased.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[imr]

Devedjian is one of the 3 persons that voted yes to software patents in behalf of France and contrary to every promises Chirac made at the last europeen software patent meeting.
Let him be not forgotten.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[Red Pointy Tail]

If this is implemented and my phone ever jangles 2 hours into a movie, I'll probably piss in panic first.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[MmmDee]

Is it really necessary to be reachable while you're at the cinema? No. And if it is necessary, you shouldn't be at the cinema.

You're not a parent, are you... I think by the very nature of "emergency", it's something unplanned. Are you suggesting that anyone/everyone that might have an emergency occur in their life, avoid the cinema? You must be better able to predict those things than most folks I know. To be sure, there's a distinction between, "Like oh my god Britney, James called me and I just had to tell you!" and "Mrs. Johnson, this is Amber the baby sitter, I just noticed that Timothy feels very warm, should I call the pediatrician?" Courtesy suggests remembering to put the phone on vibrate, and to leave the theater's sitting area to take the call. I and many other parents and professionals have had to do this often.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[senatorpjt]

I've had problems with this in the past. If I actually remember to turn my phone off when I enter a theatre, I forget to turn it back on when I leave. I've had fairly serious things happen, such as my friend trying to call me when his brother died because he needed help moving the body. I eventually just set my phone to beep once. What is slashdot's opinion on this? It's set to beep fairly loudly, but it's a quick, short beep. By the time you notice it, it's already over, so I don't think it's in the same league as a phone blaring "Hey Ya" for 45 seconds while someone searches for the button to make it stop.

I'd like to see an option for a "quiet zone signal", which would be a small transmitter put in places like movie theatres, etc, and phones could be equipped with an option to go into silent mode when the signal is present. It would be dirt-cheap to implement from the theatre's end.. it could probably be done for less than $100. The only problem is that everyone would need a new phone. Of course, the way people go through phones these days, if they started implementing this now, most people would have it on their phones in a couple years.

I really think that 99% of people that have their phones start ringing in a movie are embarrassed, and not just trying to piss everyone off - they just forgot to turn the phone off. This way, people could just have this setting enabled on their phone and not have to worry about it.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[sjb2016]

When I went to see "The Matrix" the buy behind me asked if I would move down a seat so that his wife wouldn't be blocked by my head. Being the nice guy that I am, I agreed. No problem. Of course, about half way in he gets a call on his cell and doesn't just hang it up, but conducts a conversation. To show my distaste for his shenanigans, I moved back to my original seat and presumably blocked his wife's view. Was I punishing the wrong person? No, because we all know a wife make a husband do anything she wants, and had she said hang up, he would have.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[Anonymous Coward]

there were days without cell phones.. and parents went to the theatre anyway ....

Re:Emergency Calls?

[rtz]

Nope. According to the article;

"Devedjian specified however that emergency calls and calls made outside theaters and other performance spaces must not be affected."

So they indeed have to implement some sort of selective jamming.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[The Limp Devil]

And while it might or might not irritate you in a movie theater, think about a real theater, a classical concert or any other public performance where live artists are playing.

I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it is to have my lectures interrupted by students' cell phones ringing. One student didn't even bother to turn off her cell phone during her oral exam, as we found out when it rang midway through the examination.

I would certainly welcome a cell phone blocker in my class rooms.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[hyc]

There's actually two factors at work here - digital cell phones attenuate their transmit power level based on the strength of the signal they receive. The theory is that if they are receiving a strong signal from a cell tower, they must be very near it physically, so they don't need to use as much power to transmit and be heard by the tower. So the first thing they do is set up a local base station; all the phones will lock in on it because it is the strongest signal around, and they will all reduce their transmit power because the local signal is so strong. So this automatically means your phone will only use the local base station, no other cell towers will be able to hear the weak signal your phones will be putting out.

The region being affected is easily controlled using directional antennas. Most cell towers already use a 120 degree beam spread, so directional antennas are the usual already, but they can certainly use a narrower beam antenna if they want.

As for routing emergency calls, again, the network tells the phone what the phone is allowed to do. No problem there...

Re:Emergency Calls?

[CountBrass]

Trivial. The same way that you handle calls in a large shopping mall or other localised concentration of people. You setup a micro-cell. The difference is the one in the cinema will only route emergency calls; the rest get a recorded message saying "fuck off you sad bastards: try watching the film." QED.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[Anonymous Coward]

its easy to jam cell phone signals - they should just move all buildings to North Wales - I can never get a signal on my phone ;)

Re:Emergency Calls?

[famebait]

You can control the affected area even more precisely than that: if you have two or more antennas, you could triangulate the position of a phone and choose whether to service it or not based on its position. Meaning that you can literally draw your block-zone on the map and when you step outside that invisible line, your phone works. (Not sure they actually do, but it's certainly possible.

This also means you don't have to drown out any other transmitters, you can just play man-in the middle: you know which phones are in your zone, if a tower tries to contat it, you say you're it, but can't answer. If a phone tries to contact a tower, you pretend you're it an denies service. All you have to do is be first.

Combined, you have a very robust soloution with a well-defined virtual cage that is "invisible" from the outside but completely "dark" on the inside.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[MmmDee]

Yep, and in another reply here somewhere I mentioned that parents/business people/relatives left phone numbers with others as to where they'd be during the day and evening. It was common to have 4 or 5+ phone numbers on the refrigerator outlining the course of a night's outing (friend's house, restaurant, theater, nightclub). Each of these places knew that someone might call. On arriving to a friend's house, you'd say, "I left your number with the sitter, hope that's okay." Restaurants, theaters, and nightclubs had PA systems or wait-staff and ushers to ask among their patrons looking for recipients of emergency calls. Believe me, "emergencies" are not a creation of the new millennium or the now/me generation. They have been around awhile and people (especially parents) have always pre-arranged someway to be contacted.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[animaal]

It's the responsibility of a surgeon to remain contactable when on-call. This means not having the phone turned off, and not spending time in places where there is no reception (e.g. the cinema with a sign saying "no phone reception here").

Of course, if the cinema doesn't have very obvious warnings, there could be trouble.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[jdreed1024]

It does allow movie theaters to implement something, and the public will decide if they prefer going to a theater that allow cells or not.

They better damn well inform me in big letters on the back of my ticket that my cell phone is jammed. I've taken my phone into theaters (on vibrate), and I've had to leave in the middle of shows because I've gotten a call or SMS, but that's something I'm prepared to do, and plenty of people used to have pagers and also had to leave in the middle of the show, so it's nothing new.

Why should I be penalized just because some retard either can't figure out how to turn his phone to vibrate or thinks everyone should hear Mozart's "Ode to the Piezoeletric Buzzer"?

In fact, I'm confused. Everyone gets all up in arms when some big mean company tries to restrict 802.11b, or blocks local hotspots by installing their own for-pay system, or whatever, but when the *movie theaters* (I thought we hated big media and the MPAA?) start jamming cell phone tranmissions (which are more useful than 802.11b to the average user), it's suddenly a great idea? I don't get it.

People with ringtones on in theaters is a social problem. Social problems cannot be solved by technical means. Even if you jam cellphones, they're still going to be talking loudly, or having some kid playing his gameboy, or crying, or throwing popcorn, or whatever. It won't solve anything. What they should do is take the money they were going to use for this, hire a couple of bouncers, and if your cell phone rings, you are asked to leave and you get your money back (or maybe a gift card, to prevent people from getting calls in the last frame of the movie and then getting money back), as per the back of your ticket. End of story.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[Midnight Thunder]

Still this only works when sombody calls the emergency number. However there could be someone in the cinema like a surgeon who needs to be able to receive emergency calls! Such a basestation would not recognize such calls.

I suppose one solution to this would be to leave the phone with the cinema and the cinema provides a vibrate only pager. Only the pager would be able to receive a notification. When you're finished you exchange the pager for your cell phone. Those who need to be contacted would be willing to go the extra step.

In a place like a theatre or concert hall you could either have the same solution or notify the hospital before you go in of the theatre's number and your seat number. That way they can contact the theatre and the staff would send someone to get you.

The simplest solution would simply to not go out when you're on call. The only catch some people are on call so frequently that this would simply deprive them of a social life.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[Pieroxy]

You are missing the point. The point is not only in movie theaters. Schools, Operas, Concerts, real theaters, etc...

And if people are too stupid to remember to turn their cells off (and apparently they are), then I want to go to a theater where they have no choice. So that I am _sure_ I will not be bothered (at least by that). That is still a little less disturbance.

People will eventually be divided in three categories:
1. The people that don't care, which I suspect will be the vast majority
2. The people that want Phone Jams installed in their favorite theater and that are willing to change theater for that reason.
3. People that want no cell jams.

The ratio between 2 and 3 will rule the implementation of these little things. I am in 2.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[DaScribbler]

The flaw in this line of thinking is your complete lack of discipline in monitoring the functionality of your own phone. You said it yourself, If I actually remember to turn my phone off when I enter a theatre, I forget to turn it back on when I leave.

That's your own negligence for which you should be accountable. As should everybody else who's toting their phones around with them in places where quiet is proper etiquette.

Suddenly there's this HUGE issue of emergency situations and cell phones. As if those of us who were living 20 years ago are extraordinarily lucky to have survived without cell phones. As if the odds were astronomical.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[TGK]

There is an easy way to implement that. A professor of mine had the following line in his syllabus.

"If your cell phone rings during class or during an examination I will answer it. Further, I will deduct five points from your final grade."

A phone went off once in that class. He told the caller in no uncertain terms where the cell phone being called was located and informed them that future calls to that number should be avoided during his class.

He also followed through on the grade policy. It was never a problem again.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[golgotha007]

if that's the case, please rent your movies instead. Your conditions are obviously not satisfactory enough to attend a public showing of a film.

Re:Emergency Calls?

[Proteus]

Fuck the movie, I want that call.

Here's a thought. Have the sitter call the theater, and the usher can come and get you. It's less disturbing, and people are less likely to abuse it.

Yeah, so it takes a minute longer. None of the scenarios I've seen are likely to suffer from a minute or two delay. People did manage to receive emergency phone calls before cell phones. They also did things like find capable baby-sitters.

Yeah, I can see why you'd want to know ASAP if little Betty broke her arm while you were away. Use your cellphone to call the sitter -- outside the theater -- and make sure she knows what movie you're in and what the theater's phone number is. Then, let it be blocked during the film. A delay of a few minutes before you find out about that isn't the end of the world.

In reality, the number of people who get calls from a girl/boyfriend or somesuch during a movie far outnumber those who get emergency calls. So, since the theater is more than willing to convey emergency messages, why have the cellphone on?

I for one really welcome this.

[luvirini]

I have been to many theater preformances where suddenly in the middle there is some totally unsuitable melody ringing from the mobile phone of someone sitting nearby.

For me atleast it causes a loss of the "magic" that I get from a good preformance and thus it really affects the overall impression.

Like once in middle of a serious scene there were double mobilephone rings with some really annoying happy tunes at highest possible volume. If I had been armed at the moment there might have been two extra bodies...

Re:I for one really welcome this.

[Technician]

My old boss told me of a pub he visited. The policy was to leave the outside behind. Right beside the door was a cell phone nailed to the wall with a very large nail. The message was clear. If your phone rings, it goes next to the first one.

Re:I for one really welcome this.

[pla]

I propose a low-tech solution. Warn people that they will be trown out if their mobile rings. Enforce.

I've gone to a number of live performances that do something very much like this...

I've heard a number of variations, and seen them carried out about half the time (just the threat helps remind people to act civilized and turn the damned things off)... My favorite (at a play), the entire cast just stopped in mid-sentence, all turned toward the idiot with the ringing phone, and the main actor on stage asked him to answer it, insisting over rude-boy's mumbled apologies, that he please go ahead, take his call, all the rest of us would wait politely.

I have never seen another human turn that shade of red.

Most importantly, about six seconds later (you could almost hear the cogs turning in peoples' heads), a wave of soft little clicks and low bleeps moved across the theatre as all the other potential rude-idiots-that-ignored-the-initial-warning turned off their phones. Truly beautiful.

Who needs technology when plain ol' public humiliation will work? Unfortunately, most for-pay venues don't have the balls to carry through on threats like that.

next, the cafes and restaurants

[davejenkins]

It will be a short hop from here to allowing any business the right to install a cell-phone jammer. Restuarants and certain cafes in the Latin Quarter will jump at the chance to push out that vile modern convenience.

Pretty soon, we will see little icons in windows:
*WiFi ici!
or
*cell non!

Re:next, the cafes and restaurants

[luvirini]

Personally there are times I would welome this too, as long as there are clear signs at the doors telling about it. So i would not go to such a place if I needed to be reachable, but would go if I need to relax without the disturbances they cause.

Yes!

[caitsith01]

Eat it connectivity junkies! The rebellion has begun!

Seriously though... who REALLY needs to be contacted IMMEDIATELY 24-7? I would suggest that if you are really that important, you might want to skip the movie and stay in the Oval Office doing your job.

And if a friend or relative is dead or dying, well, if it takes until the end of the movie for you to find out, they'll be just as dead after as they were during. Plus you will have had an extra 2 hours of Matt Damon (or Gerard Depardieu?) induced happiness before the terrible news reaches you.

Basically anything that reduces our addiction to instant satisfaction of our every wish is ok with me. We don't NEED to be hooked up to a communication network all the time. They should also install these things in:

- university lecture theatres
- conferences
- crowded public transport
- you could have one in your house to turn on during mealtimes and other gatherings to encourage actual social interaction with people who are physically present

Re:Yes!

[quetzalc0atl]

>Seriously though... who REALLY needs to be contacted IMMEDIATELY 24-7?

superheroes

Re:Yes!

[caitsith01]

I really think it's annoying that some people seem to have a problem blocking out things when they don't care to hear it.

So basically you think we should all be like George W Bush? :P

Explain to me how it's not ok for me to be annoyed by some dickwit talking on his phone in the middle of a quiet bit in a thriller that I have paid to see, but it IS ok for you to be annoyed at me for being annoyed?

As for you and your child... well, that's what DVD players are for. Having children involves certain sacrifices, one of which is your ability to go out alone for a while. Either trust your baby sitter or rent a DVD, but don't let your stupid phone ring in my movie!

Re:Yes!

[caitsith01]

The comment about someone dead or dying is absolutely stupid. If someone's been hit by a car and they're not dead yet, but will be soon, I'd rather like to go and say goodbye.

Thank you, your comments are extremely stupid too.

How did people manage as recently as 1990? When people were dead or dying, however did relatives get by not knowing the *instant* their loved ones were crushed by that tractor/mauled by that pit bull/swarmed by those killer bees? What about earlier, say 1900... without phones at all, you would have had to wait a shocking couple of hours for a telegram delivery guy to find you... or in the Old West, you might have had to wait weeks and weeks to hear news of a loved one's passing.

But you can't wait 2 hours? 2 lousy hours. 120 minutes... 180 if it's an Oliver Stone film. Well, maybe you should sit at home crouched over your landline muttering "can't go out... loved ones might die... might miss the call... could all die at any second... can't miss their deaths...". Or maybe you could get out there and live your life without the need for the constant psychological umbilical cord of your mobile phone, taking the outrageous chance that if your entire family is slaughtered by cannibals while you are at the cinema the police will probably fill you in on the parts you missed when you get home.

Better yet, why not kill your family now? That way you wont miss a precious second of it, and I can enjoy The Bourne Supremacy in peace.

Re:Yes!

[Vellmont]

And yes, some calls ARE that important. If I and my wife are out for dinner and a movie sans child, we're using our phones for emergency contact numbers.


I'm sorry, but that's just a load of crap. Everyone is worried about there kid, but unless you're a doctor with ueber-specialized knowledge of your kids deadly medical condition I think others will be able to take care of any emergency better IN PERSON than you can over a cell phone perhaps 30-60 minutes away.

I don't know if you know this.. but before cell phones people trusted their kids to babysitters and didn't sit on pins and needles worrying about little Johnny every single second (and thus needed cell phone contact for some emergency). Ok, some insane parents probbably still did, but cell phones have only seemingly broaded that insane impulse. I recall some episodes of crappy sit-coms making fun of such parents. Children can survive quite nicely for the length of dinner and a movie in the care of others. In the event of true emergencies some babysitters even know to call 911! Believe it or not there are better resources for emergencies than you on a phone (poison centers, 911 operators, and good babysitters).

Re:Yes!

[Kombat]

There are cases where a babysitter may urgently need to contact the parent.

There was a time, not so long ago, when cell phones didn't exist. And guess what? Parents still hired babysitters and went out for the occassional movie. The truly paranoid ones simply stayed home until their kid got a little older.

What's wrong with suggesting parents of today do the same thing? As the GP said, having a child requires certain sacrifices. Suck it up and stop complaining, or don't have kids.

So dumb, when we resort to technology

[tod_miller]

Instead of education.

This will not stop idiots who have a 50,000 ansi lumens bright display playing some dumb-ass mobile game right in the corner of your eye when watching a movie (wtf, why did they go to the cinema?)

Also, those stupid giggly-bitches who laugh/scream/cry at the dumbest of moments, or who have not left the house for months on end, and the cinema is their biggest social event, and they catch up on all the gossip until about 10 minutes into the start of the film, at which point the hushes from other cinema goers has long since drowned out thier mind numbing dialogue.

The worst, when the stupid do not use your mobile advert comes on (Orange has some great ones - but trigger happy tv should be commissioned to do them worldwide) people take out thier mobile, check for messages, and then slide them back, not even switching them.

Or if they are on silent, they bloody answer them and talk in that hushed-shouting whisper that is actually about 50 decibels above normal talking.

Using technology to enforce peoples social awareness is lame. Just make it legal to hit them repeatedly with a length of lead piping until they learn.

Re: So dumb, when we resort to technology

[gidds]

Exactly. If the problem is inconsiderate and antisocial behaviour, then fight inconsiderate and antisocial behaviour!

This is exactly comparable to the current fuss about P2P software. Mobile phones have perfectly legitimate and non-infringing uses. (SMS messages, for example. Genuine life-or-death emergencies. Incoming calls where the user doesn't speak, or leaves the cinema before speaking.) Jamming prevents all those, whilst still allowing all the antisocial behaviour people have the rudeness to pull off!

A jammer is just a tool for management too cowardly to enforce a proper nuisance policy.

And of course, this is the thin end of the wedge. If jammers become accepted in cinemas, theatres and churches, they may well spread to restaurants, galleries, museums, shops, cafés, pubs, stations, workplaces...

What's worse is that in this case there is a possible technological measure that would do pretty much what people want. Instead of jamming the phones, how about a short-range transmitter which told the phones to go into 'silent mode', turning off the ringtone, and maybe the microphone, whilst still allowing vibrating alerts, text messages, and maybe incoming calls. It's a bit more technology than phones currently have, but it can't be too hard to implement.

Re: So dumb, when we resort to technology

[gidds]

You DON'T have any right to 24/7 cell access

I'm not suggesting that mobile access be a right. Just that there should be a more important reason for jamming it than just "It gives some people an excuse to make a nuisance of themselves."

Of course people shouldn't rely on their phones for anything absolutely vital. Coverage can be lost due to intervening architecture, weather, or heavy use by others. Batteries run out. Networks go down. And so on. You can't assume you'll be in coverage in restaurants, cinemas, or anywhere else.

But the 'Jam them' reaction makes me very uncomfortable. Have we become so intolerant of others that anything we don't personally like should be banned? Do we want to live in a society where we're only allowed to do things if everyone explicitly agrees?

Remember: you can't force people to be nice to each other. You can only encourage them by example, and where necessary punish gross infringements.

Jamming phones is a coward's way out. If people are making a nuisance of themselves, then ask them to stop it, or have them thrown out. After all, that's what would happen if people spoke loudly to their neighbours in a theatre; why should speaking loudly into a phone be any different? If a kid takes in a handheld game that makes loud beeping noises, then it should be removed or disabled; again, why it different if a phone makes loud noises? Just because something's technically possible doesn't make it a good solution.

Jamming treats people like children. It effectively says "Since some of you aren't using their phones responsibly, we'll stop anyone using one." And, like many other childish reactions, it doesn't teach people anything. If someone got bounced out from using their phone inconsiderately, then they'd learn something from that! But is it right to punish the majority because of a small minority of inconsiderate people?

As I said, it's exactly the same argument as for P2P. In fact, more so -- if you believe the figures, then the vast majority of P2P traffic is illegal, whereas it's only a minority of mobile users who behave obnoxiously. Most people argue that the former should be allowed for the small proportion of legitimate traffic; yet you're asking to jam phones where a much larger proportion of use is considerate!

I understand why you're sick of obnoxious bastards using their phones offensively, and I share your feelings. I just think that jamming is the wrong solution. Use your feelings in a constructive manner! Stand up and tell someone that they're disturbing everyone! If you want to say a big 'Screw you' to them, then do so -- to their faces, loudly and publicly! If necessary, threaten to stick the phone somewhere anatomically impossible! (Seriously. I expect you'll get cheers from most of those around you.)

Rudeness is the problem, so fight rudeness. Don't fight phones, otherwise the rest of us will suffer, and rude people will just find some other way to be obnoxious!

You can

[caitsith01]

Contrary to other replies, you can actually do this. I imagine it's some sort of flag built into the GSM system that forces handsets not to function.

The reason I know you can do it is that there is an area in the building I used to work where signals are intentionally blocked somehow, and my phone comes up with "Emergency Calls Only" when I am in that area.

Re:You can

[SmilingBoy]

The reason I know you can do it is that there is an area in the building I used to work where signals are intentionally blocked somehow, and my phone comes up with "Emergency Calls Only" when I am in that area.

Doesn't it show this in some countries if you have only reception from other operators than your own? (At least that's what I remember from the time I lived in the UK.)

Re:First Post?

[Poppageorgio]

If you're life is that important, rent a movie and stay home. Why should I be inconvenienced by your need to take calls? I go to movies because, for two hours, I don't have to deal with real life and become immersed in another time or place. I don't like it when somebody interrupts this for me.

I REALLY WONDER

[imsabbel]

how everybody was able to survive 10 years ago, when NOBODY had a cell phone in the cinema or on a concert...

Re:I REALLY WONDER

[mikael]

how everybody was able to survive 10 years ago, when NOBODY had a cell phone in the cinema or on a concert...

Emergency service workers like doctors, anaesthetists and consultants had pagers. This device would allow simple text messages to be received (if not just a telephone number), and could be set to vibrate rather than play a polyphonic tune at 120 decibels.

I think I may have seen one in a museum, but that was a long time ago...

How lame can you get?

[pedestrian crossing]

I would personally be quite pissed that just to watch a movie, I would be out of touch for three hours. Not a good idea.

And I would be quite pissed if you took a phone call while I was trying to watch the movie. Your attitude is so frigging self-important. If you cannot be out of touch for 3 hours while you watch a movie, stay at home!

I swear, you see all of these posts that claim, "I must be reachable at all times", I call bullshit. You know what I hear when someone takes a call in a movie theater? I'll give you a hint, 100% of the time it is banal blather. Grow up.

A great idea.

[neuro.slug]

I can tolerate a mobile phone going off in a movie theater, but I shall bring down fiery justice on those who leave their bloody phones on during a live performance. There has to be intervention when people don't have the decency to turn off their damned phones during a classical performance, an opera, or a play. It's not only rude to the audience, but it's also insulting to the performers.

-- n

What did people do *before* cellphones?

[blorg]

It wasn't that long ago, you know. Did parents never take a night off with a trusted babysitter at home? If you want to, you can call home yourself once or twice to check on things - just not in the middle of the movie!

People who *really* need to be contacted (doctors on call, for example) had pagers; and a blocking system based on a mini-cell station could be configured to allow such urgent calls/text messages through.

And you are quite wrong about the annoyance value of mobile phone conversations - a study has found them to be dramatically more annoying than face-to-face conversations, probably due to the one-way nature.

Who needs to be contacted 24/7?

[Amata]

How about emergency personnel, such as EMTs and Firemen? I'm from a rural area, where these people work on a voluntary basis. They get paid per call, so they have "normal" lives, they just get called in for emergencies. There's noone sitting in an office 24/7 just in case something happens, other than the person to relay the calls to the actual workers.

A buddy of mine who is a volunteer fireman has a pager at all times. I've seen him have to take off from all sorts of situations to respond to calls. That would be one person that I *hope* would still be able to get his calls in the middle of a movie theatre.

Other than that I can't think of any other examples, tho.

Re:Who needs to be contacted 24/7?

[Amata]

Which leads me to one, main question .

My cell phone is always, always set to vibrate. I NEVER set it to ring. When a call does come in, I excuse myself from the theatre, and answer the call in the thatre lobby. Why doesn't everybody else do the same thing? Simple, common sense.

Because common sense isn't.

Re:This idea sucks.

[Mr_Silver]

In sum: this idea sucks and a better one could be had.

A good point - but, you've completely forgotten a few things:

1. Hardware manufacturers design products 1-2 years in advance. Therefore for the implementation of an RFID chip, you're looking at at least a year.
2. A protocol would need to be devised that all the manufacturers agree on (both handsets and the systems that will trigger them)
3. People would need to purchase these phones. Typically they'd be on high tier phones first. A phones lifetime is approximately 18 months before they are on low tier (ie. your pay-as-you-go mass market) where adopotion is the greatest.
4. You'd need all the phones to adopt this before it would work. The first WAP phone I saw was in 1996 (and i'm pretty sure that they were around before then) and only now is it commonplace enough for companies to sell content through it. That is a lead time of 8 years.

So in short, it's a great idea, but you're looking at 8 years+ before its going to be installed on enough handsets to actually work in the cinema. What is the point of blocking 20% of the handsets, when its one of the other 80% that ring?

Alternativily you could implement signal blocking today which will work on every phone the moment it is turned on.

Sometimes the best ideas aren't the most practical to implement.

Re:First Post?

[BasilBrush]

Yeah right. Selfish bastards like you always blame it on others. Not one person in a theatre taking calls, making SMSs, talking to their friends, or disturbing people by their coming and going thinks they are wrong.

It's not the people blaming you for being anti-social that are idiots.

Switch your phone off in the theatre. If you think you are too necessary to someone elses life to be uncontactable for the length of a movie, get a DVD player and stay at home.

Re:First Post?

[BasilBrush]

And besides, people are getting far too anal about things these days. It's just a fucking movie.

If it's just a fucking movie, then don't fucking go. It's not place to decide how important an event is to the other people there. I've just visited your blog.

A) You look very young, which probably explains your selfish anti-social attitute.

B) You go on about some concert as if it was the second coming of Christ. Don't you realise it's just a fucking concert?

Here in Denmark ...

[zonix]

In (most) Danish cinemas, just after the trailers and before the movie starts, there's a little funny reminder for people who forgot to turn off or silence their mobiles. It's actually a commercial - a joint effort by various mobile phone service providers.

The lights are dimmed and the screen is completely black. Suddenly a phone rings in some corner of the cinema, only it's not a phone, it's actually coming from the surround sound speakers. One of the commercials has one of those annoyoing teenage girls answering the phone - you know, the kind who is blabbering on and on about everything with one of her friends. :-)

It's very humerous and convincing at the same time. Of course in the end the reminder on the screen tells you to turn of the phone.

IMO, this is great way to handle the issue.

z

Re:First Post?

[BasilBrush]

So the phone vibrates, the person digs into their pocket/purse and brings out their phone, and reads the SMS. And the people next to them and in a 45 degree arc all the way back behind them in the cinema is distracted by this light appearing. Then ordinarily, that person will type in a response, thus extending the distraction. And if they choose to leave, then that's yet another distraction.

People that like cinema go to the theatre to escape for a while. If you don't want to do that, and aren't prepared to cut the umbilical cord for a couple of hours, then don't go to the movies. Watch a DVD.

What do you think people did 10 and more years ago when most people didn't even own a phone? Do you think they never went out because they couldn't afford to be out of touch?

Can I take these jammers with me on a date?

[TheLoneCabbage]

Here's something you won't read too often on /.

#1 pet-peve on a date, just short of picking your nose, is picking up a cell phone.

I take my phone with me, and it goes OFF the second I am within talking distance of my date. If it goes back on again, that means I'm more concerned about a random friend asking me (for the 50th time) what sites are best for downloading mp3s, than I am in the flow of our conversation.

Is there anything more uncomfortable than to be mid-stride in conversation, and having that blasted ring interupt. So now she's giving driving directions to a friend and your picking at your food. (or your nose, as at this point it's a lost cause)

So help me, if that phone rings it better be your family priest/rabbi/immam telling you that your mother/brother/father/sister/dog is dieing.

Now that I think about it, I don't want a portable jammer with me on a date. I want to know as soon as possible that the womman is a classless waste of my time.

Here's a better idea though. Let's install electroshock devices on cell phones, that are like that video game James Bond (Sean Connery) played in "Never Say Never Again". When you start talking it's all good, but as time passes the voltage/pain goes up. If the conversation isn't worth having you hang up before you have to feel the pain of everyone else sitting near you.

Hmm...

[Pakaran2]

If you jam cell phones, won't that just lead to people shouting louder? Knowing most of the cell phone users I do, I can just picture...

(Phone goes off) "Hello? ... Oh, hi, John, they have a cell phone jammer in here. JOHN, I SAID THEY HAVE A CELL PHONE JAMMER IN HERE. CAN YOU HEAR ME BETTER NOW? ... DAMMIT JOHN, EVERYONE IN THE THEATER IS STARING AT ME. ... YEAH, I'D LOVE TO MEET YOU FOR A BEER, BUT I'M IN THIS MOVIE FOR THE NEXT HALF HOUR. Oh, never mind, they just dragged me out by my shirt collar. ... Yeah, there's much better reception out here, where do you want to go?"

Re:Mod parent up

[tha_mink]

A lot of people are missing the point.

Emergency calls OUTSIDE, people.

RTFA man, it says

"Devedjian specified however that emergency calls and calls made outside theaters and other performance spaces must not be affected."

It says nothing about emergency calls OUTSIDE.

Excellent idea !

[TractorBarry]

This is an excellent first step.

Next I'd like to see the use of mobile phones being given the same social status as smoking i.e. not allowed in enclosed public places such as pubs, restaurants, theatres, buses etc. etc.

If you want to make or receive calls you can go outside with the smokers. (Actually wait a minute I'm a smoker so fsck that, they'll have to have the other side of the entrance)

In the case of trains there should be a single carriage in which you can send and receive calls.

For fucks sake society functioned perfectly well before these intrusive, obnoxious devices. If I were to start carrying round a trumpet and intermittently playing it tunelessly and loudly then shouting away to myself I'd get arrested/battered pretty quickly.

As usual its not the technologys fault but the fucking morons who are misusing it...

Now what I'd really like is a portable, unobtrusive, mobile jammer that would put a 5 metre "Phone disruptor" screen around myself.

The answer is called a pager

[SmallFurryCreature]

Far simpler and far more reliable, since it consumers less power and doesn't need to transmit it needs very towers.

Set it to vibrate. When it goes off the doctor leaves the theather and makes the call. All problems solved. Just like they do it already and did it long before cell phones existed.

Performer's perspective

[kottos]

I think that this is great. I'm a classically trained musician and a sound engineer so I spend a lot of time either performing or recording concerts. When I'm onstage, I'm already a bundle of nerves and have to concentrate like hell for fear of messing up. Whenever I hear a phone go off, it is very distracting. I can ignore it and carry on, but it does throw you for a moment. 99% of the time it won't result in any audible wobble, but if it happens at the wrong time it can throw you completely and you screw up bigtime. When I'm recording, it is even worse. Even if somebody has their phone on silent but are sitting close enough to some of the gear, you can get the lovely du-du-du-du, du-du-du-du, du-du-du-du-duuuuuuuuuu sound captured in your recording. Again, this happens very rarely, but when it does I have to be physically restrained... I also lecture at a university - whenever students use their phone in class, it shows a distinct lack of respect for me and for the other students, some of whom are finding it difficult enough to follow the course content as it is.

Where R the +27 "Funny" Mods When U Need 'em?

[RobotRunAmok]

The funniest thing I have read today -- and probably for the week -- was you putting "technicians at your small hosting company" in the same sentence as "doctors, fire fighters, [and] people waiting for an organ transplant." It is, as they say in The Biz, "comedy gold."

(I have this image of weary, grim-faced grimey first-responders -- the firefighter in helmet, with his axe; the policeman, in cap, with his gun drawn; the doctor, stethescope around his neck, medical kit in hand; all emerging slo-mo through a thick curtain of smoke that blankets a rain-slick urban landscape. Background sound effects include sirens wailing, women sobbing, a toddler crying out for her mommy, the crackle of a police radio, maybe even the chum-chum of helicopter rotors overhead. Soundtrack is something suitably somber, like Enya's "Only Time," or perhaps a solo bagpipe rendition of "Amazing Grace." Suddenly, a high-pitched cry cuts through the scene and the mood: "Hey Guys!! Wait Up!!" The battle-weary first-responders turn slowly to see a technician from a small hosting company, "Buckaroo Banzai" baseball cap on head, router under his arm, racing out of an otherwise abandoned movie theatre (Marquee: "Star Wars Marathon!") to join them. The emergency-response professionals then look on in helpless horror (and a smidge of amusement that will haunt their consciences for months to come) as an Armored Personnel Carrier loaded with a troop of National Guardsmen barrels around the corner and flattens the hapless tech into the damp asphalt.)

Yeah, sure, I got better things to do then give it away on /., but you inspired me, dude, and for that I thank you.

Re:Emergency Calls? -- True Friend

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anyone else pause while reading this?

I've had fairly serious things happen, such as my friend trying to call me when his brother died because he needed help moving the body.

Do you live in New Jersey? Oh well, you know what they say "A friend will help you move. A true friend will help you move a body."

The FRENCH are enforcing courtesy?

[erik_fredricks]

Wow. They MAY actually be ahead of us in some respects.

Sorry, but I'll repeat what's already been said here: if it's so $%&*ing important, take care of it elsewhere. You have no right to inflict your lack of courtesy on others.

The last time I went to see the Emerson Quartet perform in Atlanta (which has the rudest audiences I've ever seen), the whole experience was repeatedly interrupted by ringing and "hushed" conversations. It screwed up the audience's (and worse) the performers' concentration and made the whole performance an excercise in frustration. I paid sixty bucks--I deserve to enjoy it.

easy

[RMH101]

faraday cage in the theatre, and a GSM picocell that only routes emergency (i.e. 911 or 112 in Europe) calls going OUT to the emergency services - everything else blocked. This is pretty easy: the same thing is effectively happening (albeit without the trivial faraday cage - an earthed liner of chickenwire behind the wall coverings will do this) everytime your GSM phone says "SOS calls only" on the display - it's telling you there's a GSM network nearby, but (usually because your phone provider doesn't have a roaming agreement with that network provider) you can't use it, bar emergencies.

Re:Trust the french

[Craig Davison]

Actually, this is exactly what you'd see in your libertarian fantasy world. The government is _not restricting_ the freedom of the theatres to block cellphone signals if they wish. It's private property.

"Taking away freedom" would be for the gov't to make it illegal for any business to implement this, or forcing all businesses to implement this.