Astra sirens out cell phones

HYDERABAD: Having silenced the parliamentarians already in Delhi, the

Hyderabad based company Astra Microwave products has turned its attention to the

notorious criminals of Asia's biggest jail, Tihar jail in Delhi. At present

Tihar's criminals who are having a good time running criminal empires of their

own with the help of cell phones from behind bars would face the music of GSM

deactivators. "We are in touch with the Tihar people and the authorities

have shown a keen interest in our GSM deactivator. We have been invited for a

demonstration," said, Astra Microwave managing director B Malla Reddy.

In many exclusive places like places of worship, conference halls,

auditoriums, libraries etc. Many cell phone users bring their instruments and

create disturbance by either making or receiving phone calls. GSM deactivator is

developed by the company to serve this purpose. This equipment generates strong

interfering signals in the downlink band of 935 to 960 Mhz of the GSM Base

Terminal Station (BST). This signal creates carrier to noise ratio of 5dB to -10

dB at the receiver end of the cell phone. The deactivator makes the cell

inoperative and it becomes cut-off from the BTS. All the signal strength bars of

the set disappear giving it a blank look and the cell user goes out of range of

the BTS. The cell phone neither receives a call nor can make a call from the

instrument.

Depending on the area to be covered and type of geography of the area various

power level models are available. After installing the 10 watt two sets of

jammers in Parliament house ( Lok sabha and Rajya sabha), the company has

already installed 10-watt set in Tirumala complex and the racecourse in

Hyderabad. "At present we are planning to sell these jammers for high

security areas like air traffic control stations, defense laboratories and

installations, operation theatres, in hospitals railway signal application

installations and movie theatres. It could also be applied to places of worship

and turf clubs," said general manager marketing, Bhimshankar.

The effective area of the Astra's jammers can vary from 100 sq. mts to a km.

And for those who are tech savvy enough to use WLL phones the company has

another proposition to offer. The company has also developed a WLL jammer, which

could prove handy for certain places where mobile phones create a nuisance.

"We have developed a jammer for the WLL phones also. We are also looking to

export, preliminary talks are on with a number of Malaysian companies who have

shown interest in our products," he added.