Tecore Networks Gets Permission to Test Phone Jammers in Prisons

­The US telecoms regulator, the FCC's Office of Engineering and Technology has granted a short experimental license to Tecore Networks. This license will allow Tecore to participate in a demonstration organized by the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to understand alternatives to call-jamming that may be used to manage the use of cell phones in prisons.

There have been rising concerns in the USA over the past few months about prisoners using mobile phones that are smuggled into their cells by visitors. Several prisons and state governments have been looking for technology that could either block, or detect such contraband phones within prisons, without affecting legitimate use around the buildings.

The Tecore system is designed to terminate unauthorized cell phone calls made from within a prison, while allowing authorized cell phone calls--including all calls to 911--to be connected through the wireless carrier as usual. In contrast to previous proposals for testing cell-jamming technologies, Tecore has worked with the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services to establish test conditions that ensure against any interference or disruption of cell phone calls that are not part of the demonstration. Access to the test area at the prison will be controlled, and Tecore has submitted a letter signed by all of the affected wireless carriers consenting to the test.

The demonstration will be conducted on September 3, 2009 at the State Correctional Facility in Jessup, Maryland In addition to the demonstration of the Tecore technology, several vendors plan to demonstrate technologies that are designed to passively locate cell phones.

Posted to the site on 2nd September 2009