Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
TagsBY ADRIENNE VOGT
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
It’s 7:30 a.m. You have successfully woken up, gotten dressed, fed yourself, fed the kids, dropped them off at school, and made it to the bus on time. Congratulations.
Just as you close your eyes and lean your head back to savor an hour of dozing before work, your seatmate’s cellphone rings. Ugh, great. Now instead of wandering blissfully through dreamland, you have to put up with an excruciatingly thorough description of last night’s dinner or how she is competing in Miss Pole Dance Australia (Yes, this actually happened.)
One Philadelphia commuter was so fed up with blabbermouths, he decided to take action by using a cellphone jammer, which forcibly cuts off others’ calls. An anonymous NBC 10 Philadelphia employee noticed the bus rider using the device, which looks like a walkie-talkie with four thick antennae.
“I guess I’m taking the law into my own hands, and quite frankly, I’m proud of it,” Eric, who was only identified by his first name, told the news station. “I’d say it’s a right to privacy — to be left alone.”
But owning, buying or using a cellphone jammer is illegal, according to the Federal Communications Commission. It can block GPS signals and police radio if in close enough range, said Drexel University’s Robert D’Ovidio, who directs the school’s research program in computer crime and digital forensics. “Cutting off communication by not only our public safety officials to their dispatch centers, but also cutting off the public’s communication to 911 can be a very dangerous thing.”
SEPTA officials told Chris Matyszczyk for CNET that cellphone jammers don’t work on its buses.
Eric said if there was an emergency on the bus, “That'd be a very different situation.”
He later told NBC 10 News that he did more research and was planning to get rid of the jammer.
Some commuters who have jammers only use them when people who take advantage of their freedom of speech violate their freedom to peace. One New Jersey commuter told Forbes, “They’re the best thing ever. …When I’ve used it, it’s to cut off a loud talker on the train that’s sitting near me.” He bought it online, and he said some are made to look like packs of cigarettes.
He’s never felt guilty for silencing fellow riders. “No guilt,” he said, “Just personal high fives.”
The average rate from an Internet jammer retailer is around $200, but some can be found for as cheap as $40 up to a pricey $8,000.
An even more advanced — and potentially evil — device called the SpeechJammer has been developed to actually stop people from speaking mid-sentence, according to Mashable. It looks like a radar gun, and plays back speech to create just enough of an echo to disorient speakers and render them speechless.
In Georgia, the state Senate wants Congress to allow officials to use jammers to block cellphone signals in prisons, jails and youth detention centers, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Inmates can smuggle cellphones to communicate with gangs, plan attacks and increase status while in prison.
