By Ayomide Oriade
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has expressed worry over unauthorized use of jammers which is responsible for disruptions of telecoms services in some parts of Nigeria.
It has been observed that several religious organisations and public institutions now install radio frequency jammers in their premises to cut off cell phone calls without realising the bigger implications on the network in such areas.
The commission has therefore asked institutions to ensure appropriate authorisation is obtained from the commission before using radio frequency jammers.
Director of spectrum administration at the NCC, Engineer Augustine Nwaulune, who explained the niggling implication of jammers, said “Individual towers partition cities into small sections called cells. As a cell phone user traverses the cells in an area, the signal is passed from tower to tower. Jamming devices take advantage of this fact by transmitting on the spectrum of radio frequencies used by cellular devices.
“Through its concurrent transmission, the jamming device is able to disrupt the two-way communication between the phone and the base station. This form of a denial-of-service attack inhibits all cellular communication within range of the device.
“Thus, radio jamming is the (usually deliberate) transmission of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal to noise ratio.”
