Policy jam

The controversy turns on an objective contrary to the inherent purpose of wireless communications, cleanly getting a radio signal from point A to point B. So you might wonder why a religious war continues to rage over stopping a radio signal dead in its tracks. It is, of course, the cellphone jamming debate.
Howard Melamed, president and CEO of Coral Springs, Fla.-based CellAntenna, is the poster child of cellphone jamming. Melamed wants the FCC, which he unsuccessfully sued in court, to launch a rulemaking to permit RF jamming gear to be sold to state and local law enforcement agencies and emergency response providers. He is not alone in what appears to be something more than simply a quixotic crusade to win federal regulatory approval to increase profits. The GEO Group has sought regulatory relief to permit the use of RF jamming equipment at state and local correctional facilities, where cellphones have proliferated as a form of high-tech contraband with a demand on par with (but possibly even exceeding) cash, drugs and weapons.
Federal law forbids citizens as well as state and local law enforcement from using cellphone jammers, while U.S. agencies are not bound by the prohibition. An FBI agent, for example, is free to disrupt a cellphone signal meant to detonate an improvised exploding device. But what happens when an IED threat exists and only state or local law enforcement officials are around to intervene? Interesting, scary dilemma.
CTIA wants the FCC to declare illegal the sale and use of jamming equipment (except when sold to the federal government) and the sale/use of wireless boosters and repeaters (another CellAntenna product line). CTIA President Steve Largent last week wrote the commission to protest CellAntenna’s planned demonstration of cellphone jamming at a South Carolina prison and to urge U.S. officials to take action to prevent the Nov. 21 event from occurring.
It is a quirky issue for the FCC and public safety community, which find themselves caught in the middle. The same cellphone jammer that might prevent a prison break could possibly interfere with a nearby wireless 911 call, though Melamed insists surgical use of cellphone jamming makes such a situation unlikely.
Perhaps the next Congress can find common ground on jamming, though Democratic lawmakers will be monopolized by an economic crisis that if left unresolved could be the ticket for Republicans to make a comeback in two years.