CellAntenna Corporation Response to TheVerge.com article Regarding Wi-Fi Blocking Wallpaper

CELLANTENNA RESPONSE TO TheVerge.com article: "Wi-Fi blocking wallpaper improves security without hampering cellphone coverage"

Our company, CellAntenna Corporation, executes engineered solutions to solve RF problems. Our CEO, Howard Melamed, is a Civil Engineer and an expert in the area of RF.

After reading this article, Mr. Melamed pointed out the following:

In our company's experience, RF shielding wallpaper is not a new idea, and is in line with RF resistant paint. These are interesting items, but they simply do not work - they are usually the equivalent to using aluminum foil wallpaper in terms of its ability to boost or block RF signal. The materials never block RF signal consistently. The consistency would indicate that there was an actual solution. These "quick fixes" do not.

In the past, we have incorporated wallpaper, fabric and paint to reinforce existing RF jamming and detection systems. None of these passive items are new, and none of them are truly useful by themselves against RF signal. To outfit a building to block RF is an extensive engineering task.

Radiowaves, especially those that exist in Microwave bands travel through small openings in doors, windows, ceiling tiles and duct work. They come out of electrical outlets, transfer outside of metallic conduits and radiate around window frames. Hence, the application of a simple passive material solution to a complicated problem is ineffective.

Our company has worked with the federal government and international institutions to safely and effectively implement jamming solutions. We are advocates for the legality of jamming by law enforcement to prevent the illegal use of cell phones by criminals.

This product gives the impression that boosting and blocking RF signals is cheap, fast and perfect. These three words cannot exist in the same sentence when it comes to passive jamming.

Cell Phone Jamming Needs To Be Legalized For Local And State Law Enforcement

Contact: Kelly Casey

Corporate Communications Director

CellAntenna Corporation

(954) 510.2219

kcasey@cellantenna.com

 

Cell Phone Jamming Needs To Be Legalized For Local And State Law Enforcement

CEO of CellAntenna cites FCC data that concludes that jamming is not a menace

(May 8, 2012) New Orleans, LA - CEO of CellAntenna Corporation, Howard Melamed, announced today at the CTIA exhibition in New Orleans that cell phone jamming needs to be legalized for state and local law enforcement to prevent criminals from using cell phones for illegal purposes.

According to public data from the FCC (http://www.fcc.gov/encyclopedia/jammer-enforcement), there were only 20 incidences of illegal cell phone jamming enforced under the provisions of the 1934 Communications Act, which allows legal jamming only by the federal government.  None of the FCC citations issued were against any law enforcement agency.  CellAntenna contends that with so few occurrences, jamming appears to be a non-issue or the FCC would take a harsher stance on prosecution.

CellAntenna has urged Congress to introduce legislation that would allow limited use of cell phone jamming equipment by local and state law enforcement and more stringent penalties to members of the public caught illegally acquiring the equipment and using it.  Jamming equipment is able to prevent the use of cell phones by criminals when police activities are ongoing, such as SWAT team operations, inside jails and prisons, and for local and state bomb disposal units.

“The need for cell phone jamming equipment by law enforcement greatly outweighs any threat of public misuse,” stated Melamed.  “Only 20 incidents of jamming were found and prosecuted?  With so few actual citations issued by the FCC for public misuse, there is no reason for the cell phone industry to be afraid of any misuse by local and state law enforcement agencies.”

CellAntenna Corporation has successfully implemented safe and controlled jamming solutions domestically and internationally, including at Cumberland Prison in Maryland as part of a federally sanctioned test by the NTIA.

About CellAntenna

CellAntenna Corporation and affiliate CA WIRELESS provide cell phone signal enhancement in buildings and cell phone control solutions for law enforcement.  CellAntenna signal booster integration has customers worldwide and specializes in distributed antenna systems. CJAM Cell phone jamming, detection and managed access solutions are used by prisons and other security-sensitive customers.  More information available at: http://cellantenna.com.

Promoting The “Made In America” Message Overseas

CellAntenna and International Communication

At CellAntenna, we are proud of the fact that our products are designed, developed and manufactured in the United States. While Europe is highly regarded for wireless technological advancements, some of the most bleeding-edge cellular communications equipment is being developed here in America. We continue to receive a lot of interest and requests from companies across the world that see the benefit of leveraging our expertise. Whether we are providing cell phone signal repeaters to organizations in Poland, or helping jails in Brazil jam inmates’ illegal cell phone signals, it is clear that managing and sometimes outright controlling cell phone reception is a priority in today’s world—no matter where you are.

I’m excited that this week, I will be participating in the “Export Now! European Business Opportunities Forum,” to be held Thursday, May 6 at the Hyatt Regency Miami. At the event I will be speaking about CellAntenna and how our business has found success exporting our products overseas with the help of the U.S. Commercial Service.

If you are planning to attend the event, my presentation begins at 9:15 a.m., and you can see the agenda here.

Howard Melamed, CEO
CellAntenna Corporation

CellAntenna To Receive Export Achievement Award

Via Sys-Con Media

Howard Melamed, CEO and president of CellAntenna Corporation, will be recognized by the U.S. Commercial Service for his company’s contributions to the U.S. trade export industry at an event hosted by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce on Monday, March 22 in Miami, FL. Jose Fernandez, assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of State, will present the Export Achievement Award certificates to CellAntenna and other recipients. Following the award ceremony and press conference, Melamed will participate as a panelist in a roundtable discussion on current trade issues.

The Export Achievement Certificate Presentation will be held on Monday, March 22 from 12 to 2 p.m. EDT.

CellAntenna CEO Featured in Wired Magazine

On paper, it’s a no-brainer: Prisoners have mobile phones they are using to run gangs, call friends, and intimidate witnesses. Tech companies have the equipment to jam the phones by flooding the airwaves, and prisons want to use them. But the 1930s law setting up the nation’s telecommunications bureaucracy makes such jamming illegal.

That drives Howard Melamed, the CEO of CellAntenna, crazy. Witnesses are dying and gangs are flourishing because Congress has yet to put the Safe Prison’s Act bill on President Obama’s desk, Melamed argues. His company, which mostly sells tech to expand cell coverage inside buildings, also does some business in jammers. And over the last seven years, he’s become one of the most public faces of the campaign to rid prisons of rogue cell phones.

“Criminals behind bars are doing what they do best which is break the law,” Melamed said. “People are being killed by criminals using cell phones in prisons to arrange hits on witnesses.”

Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/03/prison-mobile-phone-debate-jammed-up-in-the-system

NTIA Releases Cell Jamming Report

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration has a released a report detailing the results of tests conducted at its Boulder, Colo., lab in December on mobile phone signal jamming equipment. The tests were done as some members of Congress and others push to permit jammers to be allowed to be used in prisons.

The testing, which was done mainly in a radio-anechoic chamber, involved a jammer supplied by CellAntenna Corp. that used both the 800 megahertz cellular and 1900 MHz PCS bands. The equipment operated at a power level of up to 100 watts, and emissions were measured in bands from 100 MHz to 6 gigahertz.

"If jamming were to be performed across the full width of the targeted bands, improved RF output filtering might be needed to reduce the device's out-of-band (OOB) emission levels in the adjacent bands," the report said. "An alternative approach to reducing OOB emissions in the adjacent bands would be to reduce the device's in-band chirp width while using less-effective RF output filtering."

"The device's unwanted emissions are better contained within the cellular and PCS bands when the chirp range is limited to a 2 MHz band segment vs. a full band," the report added. "The diplexer did improve the OOB roll-off in the spectrum immediately adjacent to the jammed bands, although measurable emissions did occur in those bands even with the diplexer installed. Beyond the OOB region of the adjacent bands, and with the exception of one emission near 3000 MHz, installation of the diplexer reduced unwanted spectrum emissions to levels that were below the 100 dB [decibels] dynamic range of the measurement system across the range of 100 MHz to 6 GHz."

The report did not address (1) whether CellAntenna's product was effective at jamming signals, (2) OOB levels for "alternative jammer designs," and (3) "[t]he aggregate radiation level from a jammer installation."

Howard Melamed, CellAntenna's president and chief executive officer, told TRDaily that he was pleased with how his equipment, a high-power device normally used for military purposes, performed.

"What you see from the report is that the unit performed great, but needs to be placed within an engineered solution," he said. "At all times we made sure to point out to the NTIA that the solution to cell phones in prisons is not about a specific product but, rather, an engineered solution. Some of the points they made agreed with us directly. Better filtering ( which we do) reduces the chance of out of band emissions."

He said the same equipment, "configured by our engineers with our own specially designed filters," was used for an NTIA-run test last week at a federal prison in Cumberland, Md. Mr. Melamed called the prison demonstration "an overwhelming success."

"We are proud to have participated in this experiment with the NTIA," he added. "The testing of the equipment has given the NTIA valuable information that they did not have before and now can no doubt supply the right advice to both the Federal Bureau of Prisons and Congress, so that jamming of cell phones can be deployed to keep us safe from criminals behind bars."- Paul Kirby, paul.kirby@wolterskluwer.com

CellAntenna Appoints New Sales Director

CellAntenna Corporation announces that it has appointed John E. Tutten as Sales Director. Tutten brings over twenty years of sales experience to the CellAntenna team. In his new position will oversee sales operations for CellAntenna’s fast-growing operations worldwide. Prior to joining CellAntenna Corporation, Tutten was employed with FreeScale Semidconductor as Sales Director and Motorola as Sales Manager.

“We are very pleased to have John join the CellAntenna team,” said Howard Melamed, President and CEO of CellAntenna Corporation. “This is an exciting time of opportunity for CellAntenna. With John’s expertise in sales and understanding of our products, he will help us to continue to grow our global operations.

Tutten holds a Masters of Business Administration from Nova University and a Bachelors from University of Florida. In his new position, Tutten will oversee the CellAntenna sales force in their sales with government entities and private corporations. Additionally, he will help oversee and manage key accounts of CellAntenna.

“I am very pleased to be joining the CellAntenna team,” said John E. Tutten. “I look forward to increasing CellAntenna’s global presence with their outstanding array of products.”

About CellAntenna Corporation

Headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida, and offices in England and Poland, CellAntenna Corporation (cellantenna.com) provides packaged, custom, and even rapid deployment cellular repeater systems for residential, commercial, and government use. The company’s new products provide communication during disasters and where signal enhancement is required for saving lives. CellAntenna is involved in the limiting of cellular communication in prisons and in areas of high security. In addition, CellAntenna works on new and innovative applications for its systems and develops new, cutting-edge technologies.

Source: News Wire Today

Cell Phone Problem in Prisons Target of Legislation

By Tricia Bishop | tricia.bishop@baltsun.com

When prosecutors revealed last month that a Baltimore man accused of using a contraband cell phone in jail to order the killing of a witness was again caught with an illegal phone behind bars, the judge's jaw dropped. He couldn't fathom how this keeps happening. It's "amazing," said U.S. District Court Judge Richard D. Bennett.

But jail administrators will tell you it's not. Cell phones are smuggled into prisons in Maryland and around the world by the thousands through visitors, corrupt guards and, in Brazil, carrier pigeons. They're thrown over barrier walls, carried in body cavities and delivered by UPS. Inmates use them to run drug operations, intimidate witnesses, plan their escapes, harass victims' families and pass the time, calling girlfriends and grandmothers without fear of officers listening in. A single jail phone, passed from one inmate to another, can rack up thousands of calls per month.

Correctional officers in Maryland and elsewhere have boosted efforts to fight the proliferation, which has worsened as phones have cheapened. Maryland pioneered using K-9 dogs to sniff out the devices and recently toughened fines for those caught introducing contraband. But the dogs and officers can't keep up with the smugglers, and prosecuting them is often a low priority.

There is something that can kill the problem in an instant, though: signal-jamming technology. It crushes communication and makes the phones useless, proponents say.

"That would be the ultimate," said Gary Hornbaker, assistant commissioner of the Maryland Correctional Pre-Release System and head of all Baltimore region Division of Correction facilities. "We wouldn't have to worry about [cell phones] at all. It would save time and money for all of us."

But it's not being used by anyone except a few federal agencies because the Federal Communications Commission says such signal interference is banned under a 1934 law, enacted when cell phones weren't even a fantasy and land lines were in less than half of the country's households. That means the president's security detail can jam signals, but jails can't.

Bills before Congress aim to make cell jamming legal in prisons, and they've got a strong list of supporters, including the American Association of State Correctional Administrators and Gary D. Maynard, secretary of the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. He's on a list of potential witnesses for a bill hearing next month.

But they've also got big foes, namely CTIA-The Wireless Association, a powerful lobbying group that frequently donates to political campaigns and represents every aspect of the multibillion-dollar wireless industry. CTIA worries that cell jamming could interfere with legitimate calls nearby and interrupt emergency communications. The National Emergency Number Association and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials expressed similar concerns.

The technology prevents a cell phone's signal from reaching out, so the phones can't make calls. Howard Melamed, chief executive of Florida-based CellAntenna Corp., which sells jamming technology abroad, says he can block a cell phone in the tiniest of areas, right down to the one in your pocket, without affecting anyone else. But CTIA isn't sold.

"Radio signals don't neatly stop at the edge of a prison perimeter fence or right at a wall. That's physics," said Brian Josef, director of regulatory affairs for CTIA.

His group has a contentious relationship with Melamed, with the two often butting heads. The CEO claims wireless carriers don't want to allow jamming because it would cost them at least $4 billion a year in proceeds from the illegal calls. CTIA refuses to respond to that allegation and calls Melamed a lawbreaker. The association has several times blocked Melamed's efforts to demonstrate the technology by complaining to the FCC, successfully petitioning to shut down demonstrations planned recently for Washington and Louisiana.

An FCC spokesman said the communications agency has no position on the congressional bills or on Melamed's technology - it's just enforcing the law as written.

The Communications Act of 1934, which created the FCC, specifically prohibits interference with licensed radio communication unless it's by an exempted federal agency, like the Drug Enforcement Administration but not the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Jamming critics point to other available technology that can be used to track down phones. But local prison officials say the cost is prohibitive and it still requires staff time to find the phones. They prefer jamming.

Melamed says jamming costs about a dollar a square foot, with most prisons allocating 250 square feet per inmate. That means a 508-person facility like the Baltimore City Correctional Center on Greenmount Avenue should cost about $127,000 to jam.

Jamming proponents say the money is worth it if it saves lives and prevents fights over the phones in jail, where they trade for 10 times their retail value.

In Massachusetts, an inmate tried to arrange his escape and a correctional officer's murder via cell phone. In Oklahoma, a gang leader coordinated mass violence in five prisons using a cell phone. In South Carolina, inmates have used cell phones to conduct credit card fraud and coordinate drug smuggling. And in Maryland, federal prosecutors say Patrick Albert Byers Jr. used a cell phone to arrange the 2007 murder of Carl Stanley Lackl, the key witness in another murder trial against Byers.

Byers is now on trial in U.S. District Court in Baltimore for Lackl's death. The day of opening statements, it was revealed that he again had a cell phone while in custody and might have used it to contact another witness last month. In court testimony Wednesday, the witness recanted his story to a federal jury and admitted to talking with Byers on the illegal cell phone while the defendant was incarcerated.

The congressional bills, introduced in January, are designed to prevent that. They would amend the 1934 law to specifically allow cell phone jamming in prisons if a state governor petitions for a waiver from the FCC.

For now, Maryland jails have to rely on "BOSS chairs" that can detect metal hidden in body cavities, daily sweeps and searches performed by three trained dogs, including Taz, a 5-year-old brown and white springer spaniel who found four contraband phones one recent morning at BCCC. Nearly a thousand phones were confiscated last year from Maryland prisons, a 71 percent increase over 2006. They're hidden in soup cups and soap boxes, books and peanut butter jars.

"They're all over the place," said Carol Harmon, BCCC's facility administrator. "They're everywhere."

Original Article: By Tricia Bishop | tricia.bishop@baltsun.com