On Oct 7, 2014, at 6:36 PM, valdis.kletni...@vt.edu wrote: > On Tue, 07 Oct 2014 20:10:44 -0500, Jimmy Hess said: > >> The only way to legally block cell phone RF would likely be on behalf >> of the licensee ---- In other words, possibly, persuade the cell >> phone companies to allow this, then create an approved "special" >> local cell tower all their phones in the same building will by >> default connect to in preference to any other, which will also not >> receive any calls or messages or allow any to be sent. > > I wonder how many customers the cell phone company will attract by doing that. >
BART experimented with something even safer than this (hosting provider microcells in the underground bart stations on the condition that bart could cut them off when they determined it was “in the interest of public safety”). The first time BART exercised this “turn-off” capability, it drew quite a bit of fire from a number of directions and complaints were lodged with the FCC. FCC doesn’t appear to have made any ruling on the matter as yet (at least none that I could find), but the wording of the various initial responses definitely didn’t seem to favor the idea of allowing cellular service disruption at the whim of a local transit agency. Owen
