Is it Difficult to find a Cell Phone/GPS Jammer?

While reading Randy Cohen’s piece in The New York Times…

Jam Session: More Text on Texting

…I came across the usual comment made in such articles that The law notwithstanding, these gizmos are widely available on the Internet. Cohen’s article points to a URL name that looks like it is an online store for phone jamming equipment. But, it didn’t have anything directly available for purchase and looked more like a spam-link site than anything else to me.

So, how hard is it to find a legitmate source of phone and GPS jamming equipment in the U.S.? I had never looked for this kind of product myself although friends and I have had many discussions about the dangers of deploying such equipment even for something that sounds “good” like reducing distractions in theaters and classrooms.

I went to the place I usually go in search of “stuff”: Amazon.com. Searching for the phrase “cell phone jammer” resulted in a bunch of what looks like relevant results. Prices range from just below $50 to near $200. The devices jam cell signals and often GPS reception as a “bonus” with radii ranging from a low of 10 meters to high of 75 meters. The devices can block both CDMA and GSM voice frequencies as well as 3G data. And, yep, there are ratings and comments available for some of the products so you might be able to gauge how effective these blockers are.

So, the answer is: It is pretty easy to find a cell phone (and GPS as it turns out) jammer in the U.S.

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