IP: Cell Phone Jamming Goes Legit In Japan

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

From: jspira@basex.com
Dave,

at least it's being institutionalized!

/s/ Jonathan

Jonathan B Spira                    E-mail jspira@basex.com
The Basex Group, Inc                URL http://www.basex.com
15 E 26th Street                    Tel +1 (212) 725-2600 x113
New York, NY 10010 USA              Facsimile +1 (212) 532-5406

TOKYO, JAPAN, 1998 DEC 2 (Newsbytes) -- By Martyn Williams, Newsbytes. Hoping to put an end to the annoying audio pollution caused by cellular telephones, Japan's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications has begun accepting licenses for equipment capable of blocking cell phone signals.

The MPT will approve applications from places like theaters and concert halls, where ringing cellular phones are judged to cause public nuisance. The regulator, which also hands out licenses to cellular operators and approves their ever-expanding networks, will seek to keep a balance between the right to enjoy the benefit of communication and that relating to keeping tranquillity.

With the appropriate equipment installed and switched on, cellular telephones become useless as signals get jammed making both incoming and outgoing calls impossible.

The problem in Japan is particularly bad, where there are now more than 44 million mobile telephone users - equivalent to a phone in every other household. With multiple operators competing in the same market, prices continue to fall to the point where free handsets are the norm and calls cost little more than those from public telephones.

Reported By Newsbytes News Network: http://www.newsbytes.com

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(19981202/WIRES ASIA, TELECOM, GOVT/CELLPRIVACY/PHOTO)