Jammers Offer Solution to Cell Phone Disturbances

WASHINGTON, March 9, 2005 — -- Cell phone use is so prominent in the United States that industry experts project that by the end of this year more Americans will be using cell phones than land line telephones.

At most public places -- restaurants, places of worship, movie theaters and Broadway theatrical productions -- inconsiderate people are instructed to refrain from using their cell phones at inappropriate times.

A cottage industry has sprung up to devise creative ways to remind audiences to shut their phones off, ranging from the "Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man" shorts shown before movies at Loew's and Regal theaters to the moment during the Broadway show "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" when a member of the cast tells the audience in character that she "would just like to take this minute to ask you to turn off your cell phones, pagers, beepers -- whatever you have that might make noise and distract our spellers."

That still doesn't always work. Recently, during the weepy climax of Billy Crystal's one-man Broadway show "700 Sundays," a cell phone went off -- despite two such warnings. Crystal came out after the show, as reported in The New York Post, and thanked the audience, "except for the man or the lady who in the end let that cell phone go off. Please, next time shut it off, or better yet ... ." Crystal ended with a colorfully worded instruction suggesting where the caller could put the offending cell phone.

Bane of Creative World

In that way, cell phones have become the bane of the creative world. "What you're doing in a show, especially live theater, is you're trying really hard to create this world so that when the people are sitting there in their theater seats they get lost in the world that you are in," said Lisa Howard, the actress who delivers the warning line in "Putnam County Spelling Bee." A cell phone ringing "takes everyone in the room out of it and we have to fight to get them back."

"It's terribly selfish, and I wish that there were ways to prevent it," said Frank Lombardi, production stage manager for the Broadway musical "Hairspray."

One form of prevention is cell-phone jammers -- devices that broadcast a signal on the same frequencies as cell phones, blocking transmissions. Smaller devices block calls in a user's immediate area; bigger jammers cover a radius of almost a mile.

It is big business worldwide. Jammers, for example, are used in theaters in France and Japan, in churches in Mexico and in the Indian parliament.

But they are not used in the United States.

"This is the first I've heard of it," said Lombardi. "I think it sounds like a great idea."

Illegal in the United States

The devices are illegal in the United States, punishable by an $11,000 fine per day and up to one year in prison. The ban is supported by the influential cell-phone industry.

"It's stealing," said John Walls, vice president of public affairs for the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association. "People pay a lot of money for their cell phones. Companies pay a lot of money to have rights to the air waves."

Despite the ban, cell phone jamming manufacturers outside the United States say the devices are being used in the country.

"I am confident that some jammers of mine are in the states," said Avraham Bussu, managing director of SESP Group, an Israeli company that makes cell phone jammers. "I am sure about this, and I'm sure not only mine. I can show you every day requests that I have from the States."

Bussu says two-thirds of his business -- which he says is booming -- stems from security concerns, "to protect the possibility of activating any bomb, so there is a need to install this kind of system to protect activation of bomb."

U.S. security officials use them, legally, as a precaution against explosives triggered by cell phones -- like those used in the Madrid train bombing last year.

But not all use of the jammers is constructive. Many business travelers suspect some U.S. hotels of using jammers illegally to force guests to use the hotel phones, which can be more expensive. And there are a number of individuals who apparently use them as pranks.

The U.S. government says widespread use of jammers could wreak havoc.

Said Walls: "There are a lot of health-care professionals, a lot of moms and dads, a lot of people who need to be in contact 24/7."

The problem is that right now there is no easy way to jam the irritating calls while letting the truly important ones go through.