{"id":63640,"date":"2012-10-31T17:39:46","date_gmt":"2012-10-31T15:39:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=63640"},"modified":"2012-11-01T08:14:45","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T06:14:45","slug":"cellphone-jamming-illegal-icasa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/63640-cellphone-jamming-illegal-icasa.html","title":{"rendered":"Cellphone jamming illegal: ICASA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The use of a device to jam cellular phone signals, privately or publicly, is illegal in South Africa, the Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa<\/a>) said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“No organisation is allowed to jam cellular signal, and any device which is used to jam signal is illegal,” Icasa spokesman Paseka Maleka<\/a> told Sapa.<\/p>\n

Maleka referred to Government Gazette 24123, from November 2002, which contains Icasa’s findings on “mobile telephone blocking devices”.<\/p>\n

“There appears to be no legitimate radio communications use for cellular jamming devices. Icasa has therefore decided that use of jamming devices will not be authorised,” the gazette reads.<\/p>\n

“Icasa notes the concern around the use of cellphones in public places and encourages the mobile cellular industry to embark on programmes to promote responsible mobile phone use by consumers.”<\/p>\n

Icasa had accepted submissions on jamming before it finalised the report.<\/p>\n

Security companies and asset trackers argued against jamming, saying they could not protect their clients’ assets without using cellular phones.<\/p>\n

Others argued it could promote criminal activity, where robbers might take advantage of a blocked signal in a bank to ensure no one called the police.<\/p>\n

Emergency services would also be unavailable should the need arise.<\/p>\n

It was argued that people who were using their cellular phones “responsibly” would be unfairly disadvantaged by a blocked signal.<\/p>\n

Icasa found that security cluster departments, such as defence, the Hawks or correctional services, could not use jammers as they had “alternative legislation” to support other means of security.<\/p>\n

Jamming devices emit radio waves with the same frequencies as cellular phones. This causes enough interference and renders the phones unusable.<\/p>\n

These devices were found primarily in places where a phone call would be particularly disruptive, or could be used to prevent sensitive information from being leaked during meetings.<\/p>\n

Related articles<\/h3>\n

DStv for Windows Phone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

DoC committed to talking about broadband and ICT<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

ISPA slates ICASA for half-hearted effort<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Talk, talk, talk, but no action whatsoever<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ICASA has said that the jamming of cellular phone signals is deemed illegal in South Africa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":25335,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[16546,35,533],"class_list":["post-63640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-celljamming","tag-headline","tag-icasa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63640"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63642,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63640\/revisions\/63642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25335"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}