Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has warned against the installment, supplies and imports of mobile phone jammers in different places and asked to dismantle them all at the earliest before any legal action to be taken by authority.
The authority has also directed all traders of telecom equipment to not to imports mobile phone jammers without prior permission of Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT).
However, the telecom watchdog may authorize any company or individual for import and setup of jammers as per policy.
The telecom watchdog has been carrying out continuous drive against the installment of illegal jammers that block frequency of GSM-enabled mobile phone services in the installed and surrounded areas, affecting quality of services of mobile phone operators in the particular region.
It has been witnessed that mobile phone jammers have been equipped in mosques, educational institutions, hospital for avoiding ringtone noises and loud verbal communication. Moreover commercial banks at large set up jammers for security purposes in the wake of increasing bank heist in the commercial cities.
These jamming instruments create its waves’ cycle that disables frequencies of GSM networks within certain areas, resulting mobile sets fail to accept signals of cellular services.
Analysts said the jammers coverage areas vary from half to two kilometer – mostly depending on the environment and frequencies of the GSM networks.
They said that anti-signal equipment is active mostly in the areas where the cellular phone towers are established at distant places. Hence, the customers face inconvenience in those areas while receiving calls, SMS, MMS and Emails on their respective networks, they added.
The regulator has dismantled scores of jammers from mosque in different cities. In 2011, the telecom watchdog removed 61 jammers across Pakistan to ensure interference free spectrum for the telecom operators and uninterrupted network coverage to customers.