by Drake P.

Created on: June 17, 2009

Short answer? Yes. The public should have access to all technologies that are not directly harmful to other people when used in a responsible manner. If every product that had the potential to do harm was banned we'd be walking everywhere, "eating" pastes, and living in the dark.

Personal use cellphone jammers are no different. First, lets get a handle on what is actually the issue here. No one is suggesting we give the public military grade jamming equipment that can blanket a 5 kilometer radius. That would be absurd, not to mention a terrible abuse of the technology. No, we're talking about equipment that can block up to 5 meters at best, under better than ideal conditions. A small device that can be used to silence the odd person making a nuisance of themselves in a public venue, or prevent people from making or receiving calls at a party. There is no massive shutdown of emergency services or interference of over large areas. Whats wrong with that?

Nor are we suggesting that people have devices that 'shoot' other peoples cellphones and deactivate them on a case by case basis. No, these disable the network services of every phone that operates on the frequencies being jammed, in the radius they are capable of.

Sure, we could sit here and talk about possibilities. "My daughter is going into labor and tried calling me while I was at the movies" Is your voice mail broken? Did you miss the sign saying "shut off your cellphone?" The person knows they shouldn't be on the phone. "Crap! Someone is dying call 911." Remember responsible use? If there is a clear danger, the person operating the device would know "Now is not the time" to be using the jammer. Sure, I can drive my car down the sidewalk mowing people down, but how often does that happen?

In addition to silencing potential irritants in public, there are numerous uses in in security, business, and in home use. One such use is in sensitive areas. Instead of asking people to turn over their cellphones, a business could blanket the area with cell jammers. Important business meeting that you don't want interrupted by anyone at the table? Pop out a jammer and stick it on the table. Think you're bugged? Jam it! All these could be implemented with a Faraday type apparatus surrounding the room, but a jammer would be much cheaper, and portable. No more heavy investment in securing one room, when you carry the security around in your pocket!

So, with the responsible use we've seen with other "dangerous" technology, there is no reason cellphone jammers should be kept from the public on baseless fears about abuse.

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