SF transit blocks cellphones to disrupt protest

[SuperiorDG]

"A decision by San Francisco Bay Area transit officials to cut off cell phone service at some of its stations to thwart a planned protest drew angry response Saturday from one transit board member who said she was shocked that officials acted as "this type of censor."

"It all boils down to the safety of the public," Fairow said. "It wasn't a decision made lightly. This wasn't about free speech. It was about safety."


http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110..._phone_jamming

[SideShow Bob]

Aren't there federal laws about the usage of jamming units ? That is what they would have to do since cell service is private company run and not a city owned utility.

[SuperiorDG]

"It all boils down to the safety of the public,"

How is taking away everyone's use of cell service help public safety?

What if someone had to call 911 for help?

What will happen to those responsible? Probably nothing.

[BushMasterBoy]

Another reason to avoid big cities.Hell ya could be mugged at the railway station and can't even phone for help. Safety my ass, its all about politicians and their image. I read some other reports and they pulled the power to the cell phone repeater stations, hence no cell service. Seems BART law enforcement has some image problems after shooting and beating some of their customers. Hopefully some lawyers can sue the crap out of BART, but then again Kalifornia is what it is.

http://battlefieldamerica.wordpress....san-francisco/

[SideShow Bob]

Even shutting down power to cell repeaters won't disable them, they have UPS or generator backup to keep them working during power outages. Is there anyone here in the wireless tel-comm industry that can confirm this ?

[Hoosier]

Here's an idea: A smartphone app that uses your phones 802.11 ("WiFi") chip to establish an ad-hoc network that can be used for sending text messages? This would also be great in disaster scenarios where the cellular network fails -- either but not working, or being entirely swamped.

I know the tech and most of the protocol stack should exist and have libraries, even the adhoc network building is defined in the 802.11 specs. Looks like there's something close that has an open RFC

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2501.txt

I'm not a smartphone coder, but it's on my list of things to learn.

H.

[BushMasterBoy]

I found this report...apparently the cellular companies were implicit in their co-operation wth Bay Area Rapid Transit. I bet all you have to do is send a few signals and shut the thing down. Free speech is a joke there. Sorta sounds like Egypt during their last revolt when the government shut down the internet this year. I hope I don't get a BART SWAT team at my door for posting this.


http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/08...-san-francisco

[Ah Pook]

Looks like a huge, gaping liability exposure. And what protest was so important...?

What happens when little Jimmy falls down and skins his knee? Mommy can't call 911 because of BART's actions. The bottom feeders would be lined up for the chance at that lawsuit.

[Elhuero]

Even shutting down power to cell repeaters won't disable them, they have UPS or generator backup to keep them working during power outages. Is there anyone here in the wireless tel-comm industry that can confirm this ?

yes. cutting power won't bring down a site.

but the company has complete control of the site from the NOC, and can turn it off an on all they want.

y'all can guess how I feel about this

[Scanker19]

yes. cutting power won't bring down a site.

but the company has complete control of the site from the NOC, and can turn it off an on all they want.

y'all can guess how I feel about this

You're.....for....it.....?