Federal Law Bans Texas Prison Plan to Jam Cell Phones, State AG Says

Seeking to block inmates from using smuggled cell phones, Texas prison officials were planning a test later this week of a a technique to jam cell phone transmissions without affecting legitimate prison and emergency communications.

"But the demonstration was summarily canceled Monday after Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told them it could violate a 1934 federal law prohibiting states from interfering with federal airways," reports the Houston Chronicle.

Several other states reportedly are considering similar technology, however, and Howard Melamed, chief executive officer of CellAntenna Corp. in Coral Springs, Fla., which had been scheduled to demonstrate the technique in Austin on Thursday, says he doesn't believe the presentation would have violated federal law.