Contraband Phone Task Force FCC Status Report Critical of Jamming
The joint industry-government Contraband Phone Task Force released an interim report Friday, based on more than a year of work in response to a push by FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, who has focused on the issue (see 1901290052). Virginia Tech professor Charles Clancy, who has been coordinating efforts, and officials from CTIA, the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) and Bureau of Prisons updated the FCC on the status of the efforts to curb contraband devices in prisons, posted Friday in docket 13-111.
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It "reflects the beginning of the Task Force’s initiative, not its conclusion,” said the report, by CTIA and ASCA. “Participating industry representatives and corrections officials will continue to meet and to work collaboratively on solutions to address this critical public safety issue. As interdiction technology solutions continue to emerge, and as corrections officials’ needs and experiences evolve, all parties will need to work cooperatively to assess both the effectiveness of new technologies and their impact on legitimate users.”
The task force said it tested two managed access systems and one jamming solution. The MAS technologies used software defined radios, which interdicted cellular communications “by overpowering signals from surrounding commercial cellular networks, thus causing cell phones in the MAS coverage area to attach to the MAS network,” the report said: “The jamming solution included in the Testbed emitted RF signals in five frequency bands to overpower downlink signals from surrounding cellular networks.”
MAS could interdict communications from contraband phones “over simulated and actual cellular networks,” the document said. “Effectiveness of the MAS solutions depended on the power of the interdiction system’s signal relative to the surrounding commercial cellular networks as well as their coverage of frequency channels used by contraband devices.”
The jamming solution was tested only in the lab. “Based on the one technology tested, achieving sufficient coverage of jamming signals within a correctional facility could require the installation of many jammers -- up to one per inmate cell -- and extensive, location-specific planning to achieve the desired coverage,” the filing said.
The officials met with an aide to Pai and a staffer from the Wireless Bureau. “The meeting covered matters addressed in the Contraband Phone Task Force Status Report and the associated Contraband Interdiction System Testbed Report and Best Practice Recommendations to be submitted in this docket,” the filing said.
“This report details the task force’s significant efforts to date,” CTIA and ASCA said in a statement. “We are encouraged by this ongoing collaboration and look forward to continued coordination between industry and corrections officials on this critical issue.”