Coral Springs, FL/March 16, 2009 – CellAntenna Corporation announces that it is calling on cellular carriers to turn over all income that that has been earned by illegal cell phones in prisons. CellAntenna is taking this step in response to recent statements and web postings by CTIA-the wireless association that represents all of the cellular phone providers that stated that cellular carriers do not want to make money from illegal cell phones in prisons. CellAntenna wants the money that cellular providers currently make due to illegal cell phones turned over to the states to pay for the extra guards and equipment needed to tackle this growing epidemic. Currently, illegal cell phones smuggled into prisons is the foremost problem facing correctional officials. CTIA and cellular providers have to date opposed efforts to give state and local law enforcement the authority to use jamming equipment in prisons which would resolve this problem 100%.
“I want the cellular providers to put their money where their mouth is and turn over all the illegal income that they earn from cell phones in prisons,” said Howard Melamed, President and CEO of CellAntenna Corporation. “It is costing the taxpayers millions of dollars for our prison authorities to search for cell phones. The CTIA and the cell phone carriers want the prison authority to buy less than effective expensive equipment while denying them access to 100% effective low cost jamming equipment. The least they can do is pay for it and make it worth the prison authorities while.”
Under CellAntenna’s plan the cellular industry would be held accountable for any cell phone found to be used by criminals behind bars. This would help reduce the burden on taxpayers and assist law enforcement on the issue of illegal cell phones.
Under the CellAntenna proposal, if a correctional facility finds a cell phone, then the phone number and service associated with that cell phone can be traced to a carrier. The carrier would have to return to the prison that the cell phone was found, all income they made from the illegal cell phone. An example would be a recent case in Texas where an illegal cell phone was found in a Texas prison with more than 2800 calls made in one month on a cell phone shared between 50 inmates. Under CellAntenna’s plan the cellular provider must turn over the illegally obtained revenue to the prison that found the cell phone. In this case, the carrier never offered to return the illegally obtained revenue.
“The cellular providers say that they sympathize and support law enforcement in their fight against illegal cell phones in prisons,” said Melamed. “If this is the case, as long as they oppose providing law enforcement the authority to jam illegal cell phones, they should be more than willing to voluntarily turn over any revenue made from illegal cell phones to law enforcement to provide the funding for the personnel and equipment that is needed. That is because it is illegal for anyone including big companies like the cellular service providers from receiving any revenue from criminal’s activities. They have never volunteered to remit the money. It’s time they did or face the felony charges that any one would be arrested for if they profited from illegal activities.”
CellAntenna believes that finding all of the cell phones in a prison is impossible with current legal technology and that jamming of cell phones in prisons is the only 100% effective answer. The company has been leading a nationwide fight to allow state and local law enforcement officials the authority to use cell phone jamming equipment that is currently not allowed under federal law. CellAntenna claims that more than 220,000 cell phones are being used in prisons by inmates around the country, which it estimates to be worth 3-4 billion dollars in revenue for the carriers. This is based on recent searches by prison authorities around the country where they believe they have only found a small fraction of what is really out there. CTIA and the cellular providers claim that it is impossible to jam only a prison without affecting the surrounding community, and that jamming will also jam the public safety frequencies. CellAntenna has disproved this statement at a demonstration for the South Carolina Department of Corrections in 2008 and continues to try to demonstrate its technology at prisons around the country at the opposition of the CTIA.
About CellAntenna Corporation
Headquartered in Coral Springs, Florida, and offices in England and Poland, CellAntenna Corporation provides packaged, custom, and even rapid deployment cellular repeater systems for residential, commercial and government use. The company’s new products provide communication during disasters and where signal enhancement is required for saving lives. CellAntenna is involved in the limiting of cellular communication in prisons and in areas of high security. In addition, CellAntenna works on new and innovative applications for its systems and develops new, cutting-edge technologies. For more information, please visit: www.cellantenna.com.
###
David E. Johnson
Strategic Vision
[email protected]
404-880-0098
