{"id":38338,"date":"2025-09-30T15:11:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/?p=38338"},"modified":"2025-09-30T15:12:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T15:12:07","slug":"public-knowledge-opposes-fcc-phone-jamming-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/public-knowledge-opposes-fcc-phone-jamming-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Knowledge Opposes FCC Phone Jamming Vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to adopt a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fcc.gov\/document\/phone-jamming-solutions-non-federal-correctional-facilities\">Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking<\/a> to seek comment on reducing regulatory barriers to combatting contraband wireless device use in correctional facilities. Specifically, the item would allow correctional facilities to use jamming devices to block cellphone signals within the correctional facilities. Federal law makes any kind of jamming, or sale or use of jamming devices, illegal in the United States. The item attempts to create a loophole by \u201cdeauthorizing\u201d cellphone signals in correctional facilities and issuing correctional facilities a special license to jam the now \u201cdeauthorized\u201d signals.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Public Knowledge opposes legalizing <em>any<\/em> cellphone jamming, even for correctional facilities. History shows that once a technology becomes available for any purpose, however limited, vendors have incentive to make it widely available. Creating a loophole in the anti-jamming law, in the unlikely event it survived judicial review, could lead to a flood of illegal jammers disrupting mobile services on which we depend. Additionally, jamming would likely leak out into the surrounding communities causing significant disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following can be attributed to Harold Feld, Senior Vice President of Public Knowledge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToday the law imposes a bright-line rule that is easy to enforce \u2013 no jamming cellphones, no ceiling cellphone jammers, no importing cellphone jammers. The FCC now proposes to violate the clear language of the statute to create a loophole \u2013 just for correctional facilities. But history shows that once you can legally import and sell something, vendors will sell it to <em>anyone<\/em>. The FCC has no way to enforce the \u2018only to correctional facilities rule.\u2019 If the FCC adopts this rule, we can expect jammers to start showing up in movie theaters, restaurants, hotels, or just randomly. If someone needs to call 911, that becomes more than an inconvenience \u2013 it becomes a threat to life and safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe problem is not how to jam contraband cellphones. The problem is \u2018why is it so ridiculously easy to smuggle cellphones into supposedly secure prisons?\u2019 Additionally, many inmates use contraband cellphones because the cost of using prison phones, to stay in touch with family or call legal counsel, is so high. But the FCC <a href=\"https:\/\/broadbandbreakfast.com\/fcc-plans-october-vote-to-revisit-prison-phone-rate-caps\/\">has said<\/a> that in October the agency will reverse the rules Congress told the FCC to create to make the cost of using prison phones reasonable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201dRather than try to break a plain law against jammers that protects the public, prisons and the FCC should solve the real problem by tightening security and keeping in place rules to make using legal prison phones affordable for inmates.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, the Federal Communications Commission voted to adopt a Third Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to seek comment on reducing regulatory barriers to combatting contraband wireless device use in correctional facilities. Specifically, the item would allow correctional facilities to use jamming devices to block cellphone signals within the correctional facilities. Federal law makes any kind [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9,15],"class_list":["post-38338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release","tag-broadband-access","tag-spectrum-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.5 (Yoast SEO v26.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Public Knowledge Opposes FCC Phone Jamming Vote - Public Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/public-knowledge-opposes-fcc-phone-jamming-vote\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Public Knowledge Opposes FCC Phone Jamming Vote\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. 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