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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Author
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Topic: Cellphone jammers to be installed in French cinemas
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
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Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 10-12-2004 06:44 AM
quote: French cinemas act to jam mobiles
Mobile phone signals will be jammed in French cinemas and theatres to prevent the devices disturbing the audience. The French government has backed a move to install equipment to block signals in cinemas, concert halls and theatres.
Emergency phone calls and calls outside the performance area will still be permitted, however. Jean Labbe, president of the National Federation of French Cinemas, said the measure followed "a long-standing request" by cinemas.
French industry minister Patrick Devedjian backed the move, supporting a decision by France's Telecommunications Regulation Authority. Mr Labbe told France Info radio that cinemas had invested heavily to improve comfort and "the authorisation of jammers is the cherry on the cake".
Last year, cinema owners in Dublin were told they were breaking the law by installing a mobile phone signal blocker. Ireland's communications regulator told bosses at Ward Anderson - the company that owns the Savoy cinema - they would be fined up to 25,000 euros (£17,200) if they did not remove the blocking device. Ward Anderson, which owns 200 of Ireland's cinemas, installed the signal blocker after the disruption caused by people talking or receiving text messages became a "problem".
Last month, actor Kevin Spacey declared London's Old Vic theatre a "phone-free zone" during his tenure as its artistic director. "We certainly don't want them ringing and people ignoring them pretending that it's not theirs," he said. "My feeling is if people don't know how to behave they shouldn't come."
Link.
I don't understand how 'emergency calls will still be permitted' though. Presumably the jammers just block all signals in the GSM band. Maybe they're clever enough to detect when someone is making a 999 call and let that through.
Here is a more detailed article (in French), with technical information about how the jammers work, info on how their use has been permitted under French law and quotes from an interview with Olivier Snanoudj, Director-General of the Fédération nationale des cinémas français, in which he expresses misgivings about being forced into installing jammers, but feels that his members have no other choice. There's no mention of how they'd let emergency calls through.
I wish our government would do likewise and let us jam the f-----g things.
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