Industries Opposed to FCC Prison Jamming Proposal
Trade groups, companies suggested small-scale trials before moving forward.
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 2026 – Mobile carriers are strongly opposed to the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to allow state and local prisons to jam contraband phones.
The proposal has the backing of state prison agencies and GOP attorneys general.
“The Commission should refrain from authorizing an unlawful and unsound solution to confront contraband devices – all the more so given the proven effectiveness and superiority of” current prevention measures, mobile industry group CTIA wrote in comments posted Tuesday, Dec. 30.
In September the agency unanimously voted to propose allowing state and local prisons to use jammers to block the use of contraband cell phones. Current FCC rules prevent non-federal entities from interfering with licensed radio use, and the proposed rule change would deauthorize smuggled phones under the agency’s licensing rules.
AT&T, Verizon, and CTIA each said the move would create undue interference for non-contraband devices in prisons and even devices in the surrounding area. The Telecommunications Industry Association, Competitive Carriers Association, Wi-Fi Alliance, Satellite Industry Association, and others opposed the plan with largely the same fears in mind.
“Even if a jammer’s signal can be adequately contained within the confines of a correctional facility (and it is far from clear that this is possible), the authorized communications of correctional facility personnel, on-site contractors, first responders, visitors, and other non-incarcerated individuals within the facility will be blocked,” AT&T wrote.
The carriers said current managed access systems, or MAS, were effective enough that the agency didn’t need to allow jamming. MAS involves a private network monitoring all traffic in a prison, via a spectrum lease with one or more carriers, and blocking or intercepting data from devices not on a whitelist.
Two companies that provide MAs and other services said in comments that “the Commission has not allowed time for existing approaches to fully develop,” noting a few dozen facilities were actively using the technology nationwide.
Supporters
State prison agencies and Republican attorneys general have pushed FCC Chairman Brendan Carr to allow jamming.
“We strongly support the FCC’s proposals to allow jamming in a safe and controlled manner,” the South Carolina Department of Corrections said. The agency said that while it valued existing methods of disabling contraband phones, “there are situations where jamming would be the most effective tool against contraband phones and we believe [departments of corrections] need the flexibility to deploy jamming where their operational needs require it.”
Nearly two dozen state AGs, all Republicans, wrote in a September letter to Carr that a prohibition on jamming “fails to account for the unique security needs” of state prisons.
Prison technology company Detection Innovation Group also supported jamming, arguing jammers are much cheaper than MAS networks.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons can jam phones, but it doesn’t appear to be common in the United States. Commenters and the FCC in its proposal referenced preliminary National Telecommunications and Information Administration studies on jamming devices in federal prisons conducted in 2018 and 2019.
Industry wants trials before implementation
FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez, the lone Democratic commissioner, said she pushed for language in the adopted proposal that asks about smaller scale pilot programs and soliciting complaints from people near prisons whose devices are unintentionally jammed.
That’s similar to what the carriers suggested, should the agency decide to move ahead with implementing its proposal.
“Any such inquiry would need to begin with carefully limited and closely monitored pilots and then use the information gathered from those pilots to determine what technical requirements and limitations, beyond those already imposed in the affected spectrum bands, should be applied to protect lawful communications before authorizing a jamming framework more widely,” CTIA wrote.
Member discussion