Jamming is a bad idea; there are just enough cases where getting an emergency call is too important to allow it. Better would be for the cinemas to take action to expel customers who disturb the viewing in any way whether by rude use of cell phone, having a screaming infant, throwing popcorn, or loud conversations.

My non scientific research has shown people have gotten smarter about turning off phones in the theater. Other public places, not so much. But I don't often hear a ringing cell phone while watching a movie.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

The theater owners are grasping at straws. Cell phones in theaters are irritating, but not the worst irritant. When a cell phone rings, the owner will answer it, with at least some atempt to keep his voice down. When an infant goes into screechmode, its handlers usually ignore it. Policies like "No babies, EVER!" and "No pre-teens at R-rated movies" would do a lot more to reverse the slide in theater revenues than would cell jamming.

My only disruptions in theaters in the past year or two have come from kids who aren't told by parents to shut up during the movie. I've never been bothered by cell phones. Perhaps the noisy people should be banned. But if phone jamming begins, might we see non-jamming theaters? I know I would choose them.

The movie industry is grasping at straws here. The real reason for declining movie attendence is cell phones (annonying as people who answer phones are). The decline isn't from piracy, for that matter either. The decline is based on

the increased appeal of home equipment
the wealth of programs on even basic cable
high ticket cost
forcing 15+ minutes of commercials on an audience
the speed that new movies show up on dvd
intangible changes in audience expectationsfor example, it's possible that current audiences are tired of blockbusters and prefer niche movies

It seems to me this is a more complicated issue that cell phone usage.

I recall a story last year where a few churches and synagagoes blocked cell phone coverage during services. I don't know if their is a legal distinction between public and private places, but I would have to believe it is possible to jam cell phone signals on private property.

Another option would be customer notification, whereby customers would be informed that certain theaters are using blocking technology. They could advertise this like a 'candy-free' checkout line in a supermarket. Available to customers, if tehy are interested.

Anyways, I see the cell phone blocking technologies being used more and more.

@Gales: You've been lucky. I've been in situations where I've had to ask folks to turn theirs off, or at least stop texting every two minutes ("No sweetie, I don't care if you *do* have it on vibrate, it's still annoying!").

@Butch: And for folks that used to have to take emergency calls *before* the cell phone revolution, they did what? The "I'm expecting an emergency call" arguement seems to have more than a few leak holes in it.

Generally, if theater owners want to spend $'s on cellphone blocking, go right ahead. The rationale behind them doing so didn't appear out of nothing, its based on Customer complaints, and apparently at a volume to cause them to actually want to spend capital on making this sort of viewing environment "improvement".

However, if they start passing the cost of such blocking onto the consumer, they'll mostly see a box office receipts decline rather than an increase.

This problem has been seen and solved in Ireland. A Dublin cinema started jamming signals and were quickly stopped. Some time later, the telecoms regulator introduced licensing for "mobile telephony interceptors". I quote from their press release:
Interceptors allow the creation of "quiet zones", where mobile phones will not ring, but where calls can still be made to the emergency services or to lists of approved numbers. They are different from so-called "jammers", which prevent all calls, including emergency calls, by interfering with mobile phone networks.
The use of interceptors by licensed MNOs [mobile network operators] as part of their network must remain entirely voluntary and should be based on a commercial arrangement between the parties involved.
Someone tell the FCC!

@Jim: Sorry, but cell phone frequencies in the U.S. are licensed to the cell phone companies by the FCC. Nobody except the licensed user is allowed to transmit on those frequencies, private property or not. Ergo, operating a cell phone jammer is illegal in the U.S., as far as I know. On the other hand, blocking the signal with cement walls and special paint is totally legal. There's no law that says that you can't block the licensed signal, only that you can't transmit an interfering signal.

I can't say I can remember hearing a phone going off in a cinema. Here in the UK we get a ~minute long ad telling us to turn our phones off - it seems to work! Why bother with a technical solution, when a visual message will do?

Back when the Blair Witch Project came out, I had to tell a guy that I'd make him swallow his phone to get him to turn it off. I just don't understand why they can't make the building a faraday cage as opposed to actively blocking the signal.

And personally, I want a cellphone jammer in my car so that I can get the people weaving in the left late a 50 in a 65 to wake up and pay attention to the road.

I don't think that it needs to go this far.

@Jemaleddin: Faraday cage is not an option for me. I dont wont to sit in a cinema with 450 people where all cell phones are trying to reach a base station with maximum power usage.

In the future emergency services (firefighters, medical doctors, etc) will be alarmed via a special GSM service. If you block/jam that, they wont go to the cinema anymore.

Paint doesn't work, dumbasses. It's snake oil.

The blocking metals in the paint, like lead, need to physically connect 100%. This is possible if you are talking about a cage, but you can't achieve this connectivity with paint. There will be gaps.

I have experienced people receiving cell phone calls during a movie as well as (rudely) placing calls during the movie without leaving the theater. Personnal, I would like to see cell phone jammers for theaters. We were willing to forego the "emergency phone call issue" before cell phones were invented, so I see no reason why we can't live without them in theaters in the future.

This is much easier a problem than is indicated here. Blocking cell phone (and any radio) transmissions is easy enough with aluminum (or other metal) woven cloth curtains and wall coverings. The requirement is only that you block the cell towers not all six directions.

This blocking can be covered by a standard disclaimer in the theater that all cell phones are blocked and silent beepers are available for a fee from management. The beeper numbers could be phoned back to emergency callers the same way you provide your number for baby sitters. This also would provide frequency access to fire fighters, off duty police, doctors, etc. on their systems.

I haven't run into the problem of other rude theater goers but I used to receive service call requests in the theater and had to hurry out to take the call interrupting the other theater patrons experience. Now I just turn mine off with the theater reminder.

The real problem is infants and children with uncaring providers attending. They will be removed by management if requested but you have to interrupt your show to make the request. They should be put up in the back where they don't interfere with others. And yes I had children and didn't bother others with them at the theater.

Unfortunatly people think that your should have the right to use a cell phone when-ever and where-ever they with at no thought as to the people around them.

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