OK, here’s a good one. Should establishments be allowed to block or otherwise jam cellular signals within the walls that they have title to? There has been a lot of discussion of jammers at NWW as well as in a number of others, most notably the New York Times. See this one also.
As was noted in the Times, jamming cellular signals is illegal, as it is in most radio bands. And there are good reasons for this. First of all, the spectrum belongs to the entity licensing it, said license having been obtained via the payment of insane amounts of money. The licensee has every right to enforce its clear access to its spectrum everywhere the license covers. This is a matter of federal law and cannot be preempted by state law or someone who’s just irritated by incessant cellphone ringing or chatter. Secondly, there are very clear safety issues here. Suppose someone needs to call for help, but can’t get through due to jamming. Suppose someone needs to reach a doctor who just happens to be attending the opera, but her phone doesn’t ring (OK, vibrate) because the house has jammed the signal? Ah, to be an attorney with such a case. Life’s good on the beach. Big house. Great wads of cash in the bank.
But I digress. Since only an extreme Luddite would have anything against simply making or receiving a phone call, there must be something else at work here to raise such ire among the would-be jammer crowd – and we all know what it is. There is something about anytime, anywhere communications that turns all too many otherwise wonderful people into boorish, uncultured clots. There are two key problems here. The first is the incessantly-ringing cell phone. Please, turn your phone off or set it to vibrate when out in public. There is absolutely no need to have your ringing handset disturb everyone else. That’s just rude. And the second problem is people who talk too loudly into their handsets. The reason for this, I think, is the lack of audio feedback that desktop phones usually provide into the earpiece. Since you can’t hear yourself, you assume the other party can’t hear you, and so we shout. Rest assured that the condenser mics used in handsets are very sensitive, and that using a “confidential voice”, as I’ve heard it described, will work just fine in most venues.
A little common courtesy, then, which, sadly, is becoming all too uncommon, is the solution, not illegal jamming that just creates yet another set of problems. And the cell phone industry could help here with a courtesy campaign of sorts, which I think is becoming necessary to avoid additional legal and illegal backlash against otherwise nice folks.
