France Says D-Star Ham Radio Mode Is Illegal

gyrogeerloose writes "Citing 'national security concerns,' the French Autorité de Régulation des Communications Électroniques et des Postes (ARCEP, France's equivalent of the US's FCC) has ruled that D-Star, an amateur radio digital signal mode used world-wide, is illegal because it could allow operators to connect to the Internet.The ARCEP also cites alleged concerns regarding cryptography and national security as well as the use of a proprietary codec. While it's true that the D-Star codec is proprietary, its owner has openly licensed it (for a fee, of course) to any manufacturer who wants to build it into their equipment. Any licensed amateur radio operator who lives within the EU can sign an online petition protesting this decision."

Comments

Re:Wait, What?

[TooMuchToDo]

Can foreigners (I'm a US citizen) get a phone/prepaid SIM? What ID do they take? (passport?)

Re:simple solution

[Locke2005]

Yeah, it's kinda like Rugby, only the players are so wimpy that they wear protective padding and follow rules. Most movement of the ball is done with the hands, but apparent those delusional chaps thought the name "handball" was already taken, whereas the name "football" wasn't. On the plus side, it has frequent pauses in action of just the right length to insert commercials, so it televises well.

Re:simple solution

[Rude Turnip]

I was going to say to send a response written in German and watch them collapse like goatse's colon, but I suppose it's not healthy to live in the past like that.