Difference between revisions of "Cell blocked"

Revision as of 14:12, 22 July 2015

Cell blocked (or cellular blocked) is a phrase applied to scanners and wideband receivers manufactured for sale in the US which denotes that they comply with the provisions of PL 102-556, which amended Section 302 of the Communications Act 47USC302 - to prohibit manufacture, importation, or certification of scanners which could receive the frequency band allocated for analog AMPS - a type of Mobile Phone Network Technology, "the frequencies allocated to the domestic cellular radio telecommunications service":

The law is now useless since all cellphones currently in use in the U.S.A. are now digital, so an analog receiver won't receive them in a useful way.

Cell phones today use:

• CDMA - Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular, MetroPCS
• iDEN - Nextel, Boost, Telus
• GSM - ATT, TMobile
• WCDMA / UMTS - ATT, TMobile

None of these technologies are decodable by an analog scanner, therefore the block is no longer necessary.

Because there are receivers on the market that are not Cellular Blocked, people often wonder how this regular is being circumvented. Those models that are "floating around" are either old, manufactured before the regulation, or new units that are not meant for United States distribution, such as the so called "export" market, or receivers coming into the country "under the radar."