Feds Look At Jamming Mobile Phones In Prison

from the hope-you're-not-a-guard-during-a-riot... dept

Discussions over mobile phone jamming seems to get pretty controversial pretty fast. The technology is technically illegal in the US (except for the government), but that hasn't stopped some from using the tech anyway. Plenty of businesses have tried to get exceptions to the law. Movie theaters, in particular, have petitioned the government in the past for the right to jam mobile phones and a maker of jamming equipment has claimed that banning the technology is unconstitutional. Of course, the problem is that there may be legitimate reasons to use a mobile phone (emergencies, anyone?) and jammers don't discriminate. The collateral damage of mobile phone jamming could be a big deal.

However, there's one other area that has pushed for jammers for a long time: prisons. Mobile phones have become popular contraband equipment in prison, and there are frequent stories of prisoners regularly using mobile phones to communicate with the outside world. So, now, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) is apparently planning to investigate if it makes sense to jam mobile phones in prison. I'm not sure why this isn't coming from the FCC, though it sounds like a bit of a political football, where a bill that would grant the FCC that power stalled out in Congress. I can understand the desire to block mobile phone usage in prisons, but jamming seems like a sledge hammer type of solution, that could cause problems for others (guards?) who might need mobile phones to work.

Filed Under: jamming, mobile phones, prison

Cox Jamming Traffic Just Like Comcast

from the always-good-to-be-second... dept

You didn't think Comcast was the only company jamming certain types of traffic, did you? With all the heat on Comcast, it's no surprise that others are being discovered as well. For example, people are now noticing that cable provider Cox is using a very similar method to jam bittorrent uploads. It's too bad to hear this from a cable company that prided itself on actually being consumer friendly. Perhaps that means that Cox will actually admit to what it's doing, unlike Comcast. Of course, it also probably helps Cox that it wasn't the first one called out on this. Just like Sony took all the heat for the rootkit, even though the same rootkit was also found on CDs from other labels, it's likely that Comcast will take most of the heat for its bittorrent jamming.

Filed Under: bittorrent, jamming
Companies: comcast, cox

Comcast Will Fire Employees For Admitting That Comcast Uses Sandvine?

from the what-are-you-hiding? dept

We still can't figure out why Comcast doesn't just come right out and admit what it's doing in jamming certain kinds of traffic. It's not like it's a secret any more -- and the longer Comcast tries to play dumb on this, the worse it looks for the company. The oddest part, though, is that Comcast won't even admit that it's using Sandvine's traffic shaping equipment -- even though Sandvine clearly lists Comcast as a customer and has used them as a reference customer in news articles. Even worse, though is that Comcast has apparently now issued a bunch of ridiculous talking points to customer service reps about this issue. Apparently, the customer service folks are being told that if they deviate from the script, they risk getting terminated. The script even includes how to respond to a point blank question about Sandvine, refusing to admit what appears to be public knowledge at this point. It's not at all clear what Comcast thinks it gains in acting this way. It seems to have only made an awful lot of customers quite angry at the company. Lucky for Comcast, though, that the US broadband market is such a disaster many customers have nowhere else to go.

Filed Under: bittorrent, jamming
Companies: comcast, sandvine

Comcast's Rootkit Moment

from the expected-filing-in-3...2...1... dept

With all the fuss over Comcast's decision to jam certain types of traffic without being even remotely transparent about it, people are starting the countdown to the inevitable lawsuits. This is beginning to take on some similarities to Sony's rootkit debacle, which started to spread in a similar matter. And, just like Sony responded initially by saying rootkits were okay because no one knows what they are, Comcast has said that people shouldn't worry about this because most people won't be able to detect it. In other words, just like Sony, Comcast is seriously underestimating what this is doing for the company's brand. As the link above notes, someone could make a pretty good case that Comcast's method of jamming traffic violates certain state laws forbidding impersonating others -- since, technically, that's exactly what Comcast is doing to jam the traffic. There's also the question of whether or not it becomes an FTC issue for misleading customers into believing they could do certain things with their connection that they could not. If Comcast wants to avoid a full Sony rootkit style mess, it would be good for the company to come right out and make it clear what they do and what that means for its customers.

Filed Under: bittorrent, jamming
Companies: comcast