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Thursday, Aug. 27, 1998
Cell-phone backlash spawns jammers
Devices, along with no-phoning zones, becoming popular with Japanese
By CHESTER DAWSON
Associated PressTOKYO -- They ring in concert halls, in movie theaters, in restaurants. Japan has gone so crazy over the cell phone that its ring has become almost inescapable.
Almost.
Complaints about the din of mobile phones have become so shrill that entrepreneurs are getting rich from an unexpectedly lucrative spin-off business: jamming devices.
``Japanese peoples' manners have gone from bad to worse. Our product compensates for this with technology,'' said Kyoin Takafuji, director of Medic Inc.
Medic, one of the first companies to market small-range jammers for private use, has sold about 6,000 of its Wave Wall devices since their debut one year ago.
The contraptions send out powerful signals on the same frequencies as those used for both incoming and outgoing calls, rendering mobile phones mute. It is as if the phone had been turned off or taken beyond the range of the service area: No calls can be made or received.
Wave Wall isn't cheap. The standard version, which has a 20-foot jamming radius, sells for $480.
Sporting three stubby antennae, it is no bigger than a pack of cigarettes and lightweight enough to be mounted on a wall. Its short range is sufficient for blanketing compact areas, such as cozy coffee shops. Several of the jammers can be strategically placed to work in tandem for larger spaces, including concert halls, hospital hallways or movie theaters.
Many upscale restaurants already ban calls at the table. Movie theaters warn audiences to switch off mobile phones, and recorded messages on trains ask passengers not to use them at their seats.
But with 39 million mobile phone owners out there, such efforts have done little to squelch the ringing in Japan's ears. So, say an increasing number of entrepreneurs, bring on the jammers.
According to a poll released recently by a Japanese telecommunications industry group, 75 percent of 1,300 people randomly surveyed consider mobile phone use in public places to be annoying. Almost half of those polled own mobile phones.
The government, however, has concerns about jammers.
The Ministry of Posts and Communications released policy guidelines in June officially restricting the use of jamming devices to ``theaters or concert halls where the degree of public nuisance is significant.''
Officials say they are concerned that malicious use of jammers could threaten the integrity of the phone system. For example, emergency calls could be blocked from reaching doctors and others.
There's also concern over the potential for interference with other electronic devices, such as pacemakers.
For many, though, the jammer is a promising cure for a modern plague.
``It's so impolite when people think nothing of chatting on a cell phone in a public place,'' said Yoshiko Takeyama, a 24-year old waitress. ``It'd be nice to have special seating for people who don't want to be bothered by calls, like no-smoking areas.''Post your comments about local news eventsFront Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web