Manufacturers are lobbying for a change in the law that would allow these devices to be sold.

What's your thoughts on this? Seems a bit dangerous to me, after all there might be a time when you really need your phone, like upstairs trapped by burglars!

In some countries they are legal and their use in Theatres, etc is routine.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/3738652.stm

The ones they've just made legal in France allow emergancy calls through but nothing else.

I think they should be put in all theatres, cinemas and hospitals without delay.

The next person that uses a mobile while I'm in the cinema is going to get it inserted somewhere unpleasant I swear.

Most importantly I don't understand why car manufacturers haven't incorporated them into the interiors.

My main worry would be the potential for abuse..

Not only would you get idiots wandering up and down the roads with the thing turned on all the time, jamming people's phones in the middle of lord knows what calls... but you'd also see essential calls being blocked by people looking to prey on people... muggers, rapists, the works...

You can bet that once you started getting reports of peoples lives being lost because an ambulance couldn't be called or people being attacked having tried frantically to call for help.. there'd be a quick U-turn on this...

Where could you buy one of these?
I'd take it to Tescos with me where all those irritating people need help to make a choice "they've only got Cross and Blackwell in the small size but they've got Heinz in the large. ...blah... blah..... oh sorry, I've gashed your ankle with the trolley."
I'd take it on the train where some git thinks it's OK to hog the whole table and run his/her office from it. I'd take it to the cinema, the theatre.
It should be installed in all motor cars as standard
....and in all hospitals where mobile users don't give a toss if their transmissions interfere with intensive care equipment

Originally posted by Ned Ludd
....and in all hospitals where mobile users don't give a toss if their transmissions interfere with intensive care equipment
Actually that's no longer the case... it's only on specific wards now that there's a problem..

Found out recently from a friend of mine who is a service manager for the NHS... You have to get real close to vital equipment to affect them now.

Originally posted by Fearful
The ones they've just made legal in France allow emergancy calls through but nothing else.

Well according to the details in the report it says that the machine works on the bandwidth that our mobiles run on, thus it wouldnt allow anything through, blocking your signal entirely means you wouldnt be able to call 999... the only way to stop this would be to make a seperate bandwidth for emergancy calls...

I think this idea is a really bad idea... as once these things get on the market or some schematics hit the black market your gonna get high-powered things and allsorts of hacked versions selling to aid robbers/rapists and all sorts...

theres a reason that radio jammers are illegal, and thats because they can be made to block emergancy services... dont want to block 999 calls do we? :P

So they want to stop us using our phones eh?

Well let me tell any cinema owner / shopkeeper this :- My phone is switched on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Anyone can contact me anytime. I never use shops etc where a phone does not work.

I understand entirely how cinema audiences etc can be disturbed by mobiles ringing. But I switch mine to silent and go outside to take any calls.

And if you get upset in Tesco because someone is using a phone, I guess it's only cos your jealous that you've got no friends to talk to!:P

Originally posted by Ned Ludd
Where could you buy one of these?
I'd take it to Tescos with me where all those irritating people need help to make a choice "they've only got Cross and Blackwell in the small size but they've got Heinz in the large. ...blah... blah..... oh sorry, I've gashed your ankle with the trolley."
I'd take it on the train where some git thinks it's OK to hog the whole table and run his/her office from it. I'd take it to the cinema, the theatre.
It should be installed in all motor cars as standard
....and in all hospitals where mobile users don't give a toss if their transmissions interfere with intensive care equipment Did anybody else see Rory McGrath on Grumpy Old Men? He says he sings loudly when poeple are this inconsiderate with their mobile! Who needs a signal blocker?

Perhaps the culprits in the cinema should be fined the cost of a refund for everybody else in the same screen?
I set mine to silent, cancel any call that rings and text anyone who tries again so they can text me back if it's urgent.

Originally posted by Ned Ludd
Where could you buy one of these?
I'd take it to Tescos with me where all those irritating people need help to make a choice "they've only got Cross and Blackwell in the small size but they've got Heinz in the large. ...blah... blah..... oh sorry, I've gashed your ankle with the trolley."
I'd take it on the train where some git thinks it's OK to hog the whole table and run his/her office from it. I'd take it to the cinema, the theatre.
It should be installed in all motor cars as standard
....and in all hospitals where mobile users don't give a toss if their transmissions interfere with intensive care equipment Ned, you should get out and meet more people ;)

If people want to stop inconsiderate mobile phone users we should actually go up to them and confront them about it rather than just all chunter away to ourselves and behind their backs.

If they got people actually coming up to them and complaining to their face a few times I reckon they would soon stop.

Well I'm convinced it's a bad idea.

As for confronting inconsiderate users, well in a Cinema or Restaurant I think that's a good idea, but if someone tried to tell me to turn it off in a supermarket or on a train I'd tell them to bog off!

I think it helps if you *talk* down it, a lot of people SHOUT!!!

There are obvious places like the theatre where its obviously intrusive, but why do people have a problem on trains and in the street? What has it got to do with them?

Originally posted by Tony
Ned, you should get out and meet more people ;)
Every time I'm out, I'm confronted by hordes, heads down busy texting away and oblivious of the world around them.
Everyone else is actually speaking "live" on one of the things,
"Yes, I'm on Eccy Road at the moment. I'll be in Tescos in three minutes. Have they got any baked beans left?" :P
I'd rather not thanks, Tony. The standard of conversation is likely to be rather limited.

I don't mind this, providing they don't take it too far. In hospitals, planes, at petrol stations and anywhere else where the use of a phone does pose a risk to others there should not just be blocks, but fines for use IMO.

As for cinemas and places where people are trying to enjoy something this is also fair, if you feel so worried that people may need to contact you, tell them where you're going so if a matter of life and death arises, they can call the establishment.

In pubs/clubs I don't really see them as too much of a problem, people who talk on them all the times in those sort of places seem anti-social to me and others I know, but there is no real conceivable reason for blocking them there, music in a lot of pubs makes to impossible to talk normally anyway!

Originally posted by andy1702
So they want to stop us using our phones eh?

Well let me tell any cinema owner / shopkeeper this :- My phone is switched on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Anyone can contact me anytime. I never use shops etc where a phone does not work.

I understand entirely how cinema audiences etc can be disturbed by mobiles ringing. But I switch mine to silent and go outside to take any calls.



I just turn mine off. If I'm in the pictures, I want to watch the film.

Who cares if you miss a call? They'll always call back.

Toby

I think they're a good idea but should not be available to the general public. Places like cinemas and theatres should have to apply for a licence to be able to use them, and once granted they would then be able to install them in the building. Schools in particular would benefit.

If they're available to anyone then there will inevitably be "jokers" who, for example, would find it funny to block off everyones signal on a train.

With a jammer I would imagine it's difficult to design it so it just stays within your building. How do you stop it knocking people off who are walking past outside?

The special wallpaper idea in the BBC article seems better, as it's just going to sheild your building. But what if someone has your building between them and the antenna........

How would that work?

I presume these radio waves can bounce?

I find the most annoying thing about mobile phones is those ridiculous S.O.S. type message alert tones, which are almost always turned up to full volume. Kids are the worse offenders and, as they check their phones every five seconds, and I can only assume they want everyone else to know they have a message. I'd rather not know, thank-you very much.

Originally posted by Ned Ludd
I presume these radio waves can bounce?

They'll bounce and there's also something called diffraction, which allows the signals to 'wrap' around a shielded building.

I think the idea of licensing these things for use in buildings is a good call. The comment about the jammer 'leaking' out of the building is quite true - what you might end up doing is having low power devices and quite a few of them throughout the building so that the radiation outside the building is as low as possible.

The lawyers will have a field day.

I've just realised that I use my mobile more like a pager. I turn the darn thing off so much and leave it in the bottom of my bag, just checking the messages every few hours. :)

Joe

Originally posted by Killian
I find the most annoying thing about mobile phones is those ridiculous S.O.S. type message alert tones, which are almost always turned up to full volume. Kids are the worse offenders and, as they check their phones every five seconds, and I can only assume they want everyone else to know they have a message. I'd rather not know, thank-you very much.

Actually it's spelling out S.M.S, not S.O.S. As in Short Messaging Service.

But I can understand where you might have been confused.

Originally posted by BoroughGal
Actually it's spelling out S.M.S, not S.O.S. As in Short Messaging Service.

But I can understand where you might have been confused.

it's probably because I need the S.O.S. everytime I hear the damn things.