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Bar In UK Uses Faraday Cage To Block Mobile Phone Signals (telegraph.co.uk)
Reader Bruce66423 writes: A cocktail bar owner has installed a Faraday cage in his walls to prevent mobile phone signals entering the building. Steve Tyler of the Gin Tub, in Hove, East Sussex, is hoping customers will be encouraged to talk to each other rather than looking at their screens. He has installed metal mesh in the walls and ceiling of the bar which absorbs and redistributes the electromagnetic signals from phones and wireless devices to prevent them entering the interior of the building. The effect was discovered in 1836 by scientist Michael Faraday and is often used in power plants or other highly charged environments to prevent shocks or interference with other electronic equipment. Some wallets are now cloaked in a similar flexible mesh to prevent data and credit card theft. Mr Tyler said he wanted to force "people to interact in the real world" and remember how to socialise. "I just wanted people to enjoy a night out in my bar, without being interrupted by their phones," he said. "So rather than asking them not to use their phones, I stopped the phones working. I want you to enjoy the experience of going out."
The endangering argument would fall flat on its face here in the UK, thankfully.
Even if a building were an FCC regulated device (for all practical purposes, buildings are not), FCC regulations require that devices emit essentially only in permitted or unlicensed frequencies at permitted power levels, accept harmful interference, and not produce harmful interference. They don't require that devices or structures facilitate radio communications.
A proper faraday cage isn't emitting much of anything, accepts harmful interference, and does not produce harmful interference. It's a radio-opaque object. Unless you can point to a regulation against radio-opaque objects (hint: there isn't one), it's perfectly legal in the US.
They still exist, pretty much every business still has a landline, and now any passer by in the street is almost guaranteed to have a phone. I still see no reason to make this about a terrorist attack or anything else - its private property, the only right that exists here is the right for that owner to do this.
...and a Faraday cage is passive jamming.
You know how we functioned without a mobile phone? We couldn't do a thing in many cases, and people died because of it. No, not terrorist attacks, but more mundane things like medical emergencies and car accidents.
A decade and a half ago (or thereabouts), I was driving with my father on a winter-slick rural road, and we came upon an accident. A kid had just lost control of his car and flipped it over on the side of the road. My dad had his cell phone with him (that's what they were called then) and called 911. Fortunately, the kid wasn't badly hurt, but if he had been, that call may have saved his life.
It was then that I determined I really should get a cell phone of my own. What I saw someone else in an accident and couldn't make a simple phone call to help them? Or, perhaps more likely, what if I got stranded myself and needed some assistance?
I'm not saying blocking mobile calls should be illegal in a private establishment - so long as patrons are notified. After all, there's a land line, and in most emergencies, you could also quickly run outside to call. I'm just saying that you shouldn't pooh-pooh how many lives mobile phones have likely saved. That's a critical function of them, one you may not appreciate until you have to use it yourself.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
A Faraday cage is PASSIVE obstruction and perfectly legal. Active jamming would be creating EM interference on the same frequency...
Lots of places have EM shielding to block radio waves of all sorts -- especially hospitals, research facilities, factories, and government facilities.
They even sell wallpaper with the mesh built in so it's easier to set up.
FFS, statistically you are significantly far more likely to be murdered by someone you know, eg. your spouse, kids, parents, neighbour, ex-partner, work college, etc etc etc, and even MORE likely to be killed driving (probably by some moron using a cellphone while driving).
https://www.start.umd.edu/pubs/START_AmericanTerrorismDeaths_FactSheet_Oct2015.pdf
http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/oregon-college-shooting/americans-killed-gun-violence-vs-terrorism-n437246
In that same period from 2001 through to 2014, 3066 americans were killed by terrorists, 2902 were killed in 9/11
However in that same period over 160,000 americans have been murdered with a firearm.
If you remove 9/11 that comes down to 164 americans killed by terrorists since 2011. You are more likely to fall to your death, get struck by lightening, etc etc etc
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-terrorism-statistics-every-american-needs-to-hear/5382818
Thats the problem is with stupid frightened idiots, in the face of facts, they remain stupid frightened idiots.
So grow a pair and stop being a scared little toser
It's only illegal in the U.S. to use electronic means to jam cell or radio signals.
Physical blocks, such as Faraday cages, are perfectly legal otherwise nearly every business in the country would be in violation, especially those in older buildings which have an iron framework.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower