Signal blockers can remotely force a phone into ‘quiet mode’ on public transport

The jammer that could silence mobile phones in train ‘quiet’ carriages

  • Cubic Corporation patented technology to control hardware features of a phone
  • It would have the potential to automatically activate the pre-installed quiet mode
  • It remains unknown if the technology will ever be implemented in the UK 

Suffering through public transport journeys with inconsiderate commuters talking loudly on phones, teenagers playing music and children blaring out the shrill tones of a video game may thankfully soon be a thing of the past.

A company is working on technology which would fit signal blockers to trains, buses and underground stations to force a phone, and its user, to act with some decorum.

Cubic Corporation – the firm which also runs London’s Oyster system – has patented technology which can remotely control some hardware inside a handset. 

It has the potential to automatically activate a pre-installed, but rarely used, quiet mode as well as turning off certain features and forcing a device off. 

  

A company is working on technology which would fit signal blockers to trains, buses and the underground to force a phone – and its user – to act with suitable decorum and would enable quiet mode or turn the volume down (stock image)

It was filed in the US and would have a multitude of detectors dotted around a station or vehicle to pick up on and signals form a phone. 

The patent states the exact location can then be pinpointed and be forced into a range of different options.

Use of headphones or other accessories would be taken into account and the action most deemed appropriate to prevent disruption would be implemented, according to the patent.  

It remains unknown if the technology will ever be implemented as the company claims it is merely a ‘proof-of-concept’ patent. 

Cubic also said there are no plans in place to develop or install the technology.  

Inspiration for the technology came from disruption from mobile phones as they 'can be irritating to transit users, especially in designated quiet zones', the patent states  (stock image)

Inspiration for the technology came from disruption from mobile phones as they ‘can be irritating to transit users, especially in designated quiet zones’, the patent states  (stock image)

Inspiration for the technology came from disruption from mobile phones as they ‘can be irritating to transit users, especially in designated quiet zones’, the patent states.

If the technology was to progress and arrive on UK shores, there would need to be significant refining of it in order to meet UK law. 

Currently, it is a criminal offence to use any apparatus, including jammers, for the purposes of deliberately interfering with wireless telegraphy in the UK.

The maximum penalty is two years’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine, according to Ofcom, under section 68 of the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006. 

HOW DO SIGNAL JAMMERS WORK? 

Disrupting a mobile phone is done in the same way as any other wireless device reliant on radio communication.  

They work by connecting to a tower or station which then has a certain range and divides a city into different sections. 

As a cell-phone user drives down the street, the signal is handed from tower to tower.

A jamming device transmits on the same radio frequencies as the phone, disrupting the communication between the phone and the tower.

The jammer denies service of the radio spectrum to the cell-phone users within range of the jamming device. 



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