Cell blocked

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":

• 824-849MHz
• 869-894MHz

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, Mike
• GSM - ATT, TMobile
• WCDMA aka UMTS - ATT, TMobile

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