FCC Seeks Feedback on Wireless Blocking

After the San Francisco (Calif.) transit district turned off cellular service within its underground stations last November during an Occupy protest, there was criticism the practice put subway riders in jeopardy if they needed to dial 911 for an emergency. No incidents occurred during the outage, which was intended to prevent protesters from coordinating their actions within the stations. But now the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a call for feedback on the issue of deliberately interrupting cellular services by government agencies, raising the issue of public safety, including the inability to dial 911 if needed. The commission is asking for documentation of past interruptions, how they were legally justified and technically performed, and if they were effective in any way. Also, the FCC asked, “Can wireless carriers implement a general service interruption, but still ensure that the public can make wireless 911 calls? Would a service disruption that permits wireless 911 calls, but otherwise prohibits voice, text, and data communications, achieve the same purpose as a blanket interruption? Would it pose any unique risks to persons with disabilities?” Download (pdf) the FCC’s request for comments for more details.