# Active cell phone blocking in private buildings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2019, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991 "2019-06-04T01:52:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/21 "2019-06-05T03:17:07Z")
> [@alnath](#): > > Seems bad. Coud make people miss emergency calls, not be able to call 911, etc. Oh, yes – dreadful. How ever did we survive for the 150 years before cell phones? ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/22 "2019-06-05T11:40:05Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > Oh, yes – dreadful. > How ever did we survive for the 150 years before cell phones? yeah, I don’t get this. I don’t want my phone blocked when I’m at the doctor’s office or wherever - but for a real emergency I’d do what I would have done 30 years ago - ask the receptionist to call 911. And in terms of getting emergency calls- same thing - 30 years ago you’d have found some other way to handle it if we weren’t close enough for you to know where I was or it wasn’t important enough for you to call the doctor’s office looking for me… ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/23 "2019-06-05T12:58:40Z")
Some of us didn’t survive before cell phones. A lot of lives are saved by 911 calls that wouldn’t previously have been possible. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/24 "2019-06-05T13:31:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Some of us didn’t survive before cell phones. A lot of lives are saved by 911 calls that wouldn’t previously have been possible. I don’t disagree but how many lives were lost in public spaces that require quiet like movie theaters or libraries because they didn’t have a cell phone? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/25 "2019-06-05T13:36:18Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > I don’t disagree but how many lives were lost in public spaces that require quiet like movie theaters or libraries because they didn’t have a cell phone? Ask James Holmes. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/26 "2019-06-05T13:40:37Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Ask James Holmes. Pretty sure the manager could have got on the land line and called the cops in that situation. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/27 "2019-06-05T13:41:37Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > I don’t disagree but how many lives were lost in public spaces that require quiet like movie theaters or libraries because they didn’t have a cell phone? How many lives is it worth to slightly reduce disturbances in theaters and libraries? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/28 "2019-06-05T13:42:57Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > > [@Grrr](#): > > > > I don’t disagree but how many lives were lost in public spaces that require quiet like movie theaters or libraries because they didn’t have a cell phone? > > Ask James Holmes. I assume you are referring to the mass shooter in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Did the presence of cell phones among the crowd save any lives? Would it have been more deadly without cell phones? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/29 "2019-06-05T14:07:27Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I assume you are referring to the mass shooter in the movie theater in Aurora, Colorado. Did the presence of cell phones among the crowd save any lives? Would it have been more deadly without cell phones? I do not know, but it seems that in a situation with an active shooter, having cellphones would be a plus. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/30 "2019-06-05T14:09:43Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > It is, however, legal to physically shield buildings. There are contractors who do this kind of work. Expensive, though, and it’s usually places like medical clinics that do this. And in many places, the fire code will require you to find a way to not shield the building from the radio signals used by the local emergency services. Which would be even more expensive, and maybe not even possible for some bands. (I assume there are exceptions for legitimate needs in medical and scientific labs.) ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/31 "2019-06-05T14:19:26Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I do not know, but it seems that in a situation with an active shooter, having cellphones would be a plus. Sure it would, but jeez dude… Risk assessment? You willing to make alcohol illegal (again) to make the world safer? Something about your avatar tells me you’re not. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/32 "2019-06-05T15:05:13Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > Sure it would, but jeez dude… Risk assessment? > > You willing to make alcohol illegal (again) to make the world safer? Something about your avatar tells me you’re not. 😃 You’re the one trying to restrict something. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/33 "2019-06-05T15:17:17Z")
> [@naita](#): > > You’re the one trying to restrict something. And your point being? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/34 "2019-06-05T15:22:37Z")
I also recall a news story several years ago about some guy who was charged when they traced jamming to a car travelling on the Washington DC expressways. Again, a fairly predictable commute pattern helped. Apparently cars within about 200 feet lost cell connections. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/35 "2019-06-05T16:32:12Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > How ever did we survive for the 150 years before cell phones? In addition to the fact that cell phones _have_ saved some lives, this idea ignores the fact that society adapts to what’s available. Before cell phones, people who might be on-call for emergency services of some sort didn’t go to the theater without a lot more hassle to make sure that someone reachable knew where they were. Now that we are generally contactable everywhere we go, we can organize our lives differently. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t allow certain places to require silence, or that people who take calls in the theater aren’t assholes. It means that the issue is more complicated. Lots of people survived for millennia without cars too, but that’s not a very useful observation if we’re considering whether or not to allow them on a given street. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/36 "2019-06-05T16:38:13Z")
> [@Grrr](#): > > And your point being? That wanting to block cell phones is more like prohibition than restricting cell phone jamming is. Not that either is much of an argument, of course. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2019, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991/37 "2019-06-06T21:59:29Z")
A friend was photographing a wedding in a cathedral in Mexico. He couldn’t get a signal to upload images and his church contact person said “You won’t here. Can you keep them in camera/on a card, then upload later?” Surrre, but why? “See those statues along each side of the nave? They have jammers behind them. I didn’t tell you this, but the funny part is, we got them from the Israeli Armed Forces.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/active-cell-phone-blocking-in-private-buildings/834991.md?page=1)