FCC Tackles Cell Phone Jamming

WASHINGTON -- The FCC Enforcement Bureau today announced new efforts to clamp down on the marketing, sale, and use of illegal cell phone and GPS jamming devices.

The Bureau released two Enforcement Advisories and a downloadable poster on cell phone and GPS jamming that warn consumers, manufacturers, and retailers (including online and Web-only companies) that the marketing, sale, or use of cell, GPS, and other jamming devices is illegal. These steps highlight a new outreach phase of the Bureau's continuing effort to halt the distribution and proliferation of illegal jamming devices in the United States. In the last two weeks, the Bureau issued warnings to four well-known online retailers - including the company that markets the TxTStopperTM - directing them to cease marketing jamming devices to customers in the U.S. or face stiff fines.

"Jamming devices create serious safety risks," said Michele Ellison, Chief of the FCC's Enforcement Bureau. "In the coming weeks and months, we'll be intensifying our efforts through partnerships with law enforcement agencies to crack down on those who continue to violate the law.

Through education, outreach, and aggressive enforcement, we're tackling this problem head on," Ellison said, "While people who use jammers may think they are only silencing disruptive conversations or disabling unwanted GPS capabilities, they could also be preventing a scared teenager from calling 9-1-1, an elderly person from placing an urgent call to a doctor, or a rescue team from homing in on the location of a severely injured person. The price for one person's moment of peace or privacy, could be the safety and well-being of others."

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)