French cinemas to jam mobile phones
PrintWithout blocking emergency calls
Posted in Mobile, 12th October 2004 10:53 GMT
Free webcast: Service level monitoring and management
The French government will allow cinema, theatre and restaurant owners to install technology to block mobile phone calls from their premises - so long as there is no interference with emergency calls or to phones outside the building.
Industry minister Patrick Devedjian announced the change on Monday, previously the devices were outlawed, as they are in the UK. The change in the law is in response to lobbying by the French cinema industry which blames inconsiderate mobile phone users for falling ticket sales. It is part of a package of measures to get French punters back into cinemas.
Devedjian told newswires: "It's the same for concerts. You know how it is when thugs let their phones ring during a concert. But that's all over now".
The Irish telecoms regulator, ComReg, took action against a Dublin cinema which fitted a mobile phone blocker to one of its cinemas last year. The technology was withdrawn after the cinema manager was threatened with a €25,000 fine and a year in prison. ®
Related stories
Cellphone jamming scam exposed
Magnetic wood the new mobile phone squelcher
Welsh cinema spies on mobile phone users
What Exchange can't do - and Dell can
Enterprise PBX buyer's guide
Enabling the Agile Data Center
SMB phone systems product requirements worksheet
Dirty, dirty PCs: The X-rated picture guide
Top 500 supers - rise of the Linux quad-cores
Early adopters bloodied by Ubuntu's Karmic Koala
Sign up, sign up for The Register IT security newsletter