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Feds Consider Allowing Cell Phone Jamming In Prisons

Even though the number of cellphones confiscated in prisons has jumped since 2007, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has resisted allowing correctional facilities to use wireless jamming technology to block cellphone signals.

The Obama administration is taking a new look at wireless jamming technologies as a way to thwart cellphone use by inmates, reports the Los Angeles Times.

"The administration believes that contraband cell phone use by prison inmates to carry out criminal enterprises is intolerable and demands an effective solution," according to the report released in December by the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Even though the number of cellphones confiscated in prisons has jumped since 2007, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has resisted allowing correctional facilities to use wireless jamming technology to block cellphone signals.

Anti-jamming advocates insist jamming signals will expand past the desired limits and deny service to lawful users who happen to be nearby, or are far away but in the range of an unobstructed signal.

Read the full story at LATimes.com.

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