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New Zealand Church Fined for Jamming Cell Phones

by Terrence O'Brien on December 1, 2009 at 11:01 AM

New Zealand Church Fined Over Cell Phone Jamming
A church in Auckland, New Zealand is in hot water for illegally installing a cell-phone jammer to prevent mobile-addicted worshipers from interrupting services. The Mount Albert Church is being slapped with a $1,250 fine (about $894 in U.S. currency) by the Economic Development Ministry, which banned the sale and manufacture of such devices in August.

The jammer would have likely gone unnoticed if it weren't for the fact that it was interfering with cellular signals hundreds of feet from the church. After Vodafone complained of detecting interference near one of its cellular antenna sites, the source was tracked down by the ministry's radio spectrum compliance manager. The ministry told the Dominion Post that the chances of emergency calls in the area failing thanks to the jammer were significant.

The church has quietly accepted the fine and turned off the jammer, but the ministry's work is not over yet. Such devices are easily obtained on the Internet for about $100, and more powerful models are believed to be able to block calls over an area of several miles. If installed in a major metropolitan area, such a device could wreak untold amounts of havoc. Of course, if such a jammer were turned on in New York City, AT&T customers would likely never notice. [From: Stuff.co.nz, via: Textually.org]

Tags: church, jammer, law, top

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