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Theater owners consider asking permission to jam cell phones

WASHINGTON-The National Association of Theatre Owners is considering asking the Federal Communications Commission to allow theaters to install equipment that would jam mobile-phone signals, but the trade group has yet to take such action. Jamming equipment is banned today.

“The petition is still under consideration,” Kendrick MacDowell, NATO general counsel, told RCR Wireless News. “We have been authorized to look into this issue.”

In October 1999, CTIA applauded the FCC for issuing a public notice strongly warning against the manufacture or use of transmitters designed to prevent or jam the operation of cellular phones or any other commercial mobile radio service or radio-communications system. The public notice stated that the Communications Act of 1934, as amended, and the FCC’s rules do not permit the use of transmitters designed to prevent or jam the operation of cellular phones in hospitals, theaters, restaurants or other locations.

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