Partable cell phone jammer
Whether it’s talking while you walk or talking while you shop, there isn’t much that keeps us from answering a cell phone call.
“I think the etiquette has gone down a little bit just because, you know, people will bust them out whenever and it does get kind of annoying once in a while,” says cell phone owner Aaron Nelson.
But now cell phone jammers promise to put an end to conversations at the dinner table or even the entire restaurant.
“The biggest (problem) I would say is when you do come up to a table to take an order, you need to wait for them to finish their conversation,” Says Jill Hunter, assistant manager at the Phillips Ave. Diner.
Several internet sites offer a variety of cell phone jammers, there are portable jammers for about $200 that block a signal for about five yards, and stationary jammers for up to $4,000 dollars that knock out a signal for up to 300 yards. The problem is, when they block calls, they also illegally interfere with public airwaves.
“The law is very clear,” says South Dakota Public Utilities Commission Chairman Dusty Johnson. “You can’t interfere with those radio waves. They’re licensed and not only is it illegal, again, I think there’s some serious safety concerns.”
The concerns come because of the possibility that they’ll interfere with first responders and 9-11 calls, and as long as that threat to emergency communications remains greater than the nuisance, we’ll have to tolerate the talk.
“There’s a lot of stuff you have to deal with as a server, and that just, you know, adds to the list,” Hunter says. “So it could be worse.”
Even though they are illegal, experts say jammers are still growing in popularity because they’re hard to detect and only the FCC can enforce jammer laws. Using a cell phone jammer will cost you up to $11,000 for your first offense.