ANFR recounts the finding of its latest investigation into mobile network jamming. Last summer, the agency was contacted several times after reports of jamming by two operators in the same area of ​​Puy du Dome. For several months, the Clermont-Ferrand region as well as several neighboring municipalities have turned into white areas.

Mobile customers in the region are no longer able to connect to a network. Very quickly, ANFR suspected the – illegal – installation of a wave scrambler. As the authority reports: “So it remained to pinpoint the exact source of the interference – which in this city of over 140,000 inhabitants was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack!”. To determine the source of the problem, ANFR cut through the area with a special vehicle equipped with a direction finder.

ANFR tells how it found an illegal surfing jammer and its owner

Upon arriving at the scene, the officers ran into a problem. The direction finder cannot accurately determine the source of the interference. However, the Clermont-Ferrand area in which they found themselves has many building pubs, with dozens of houses. So they move on to a series of measurements that enabled them to make the first observation.

The problematic device was already a jamming device capable of jamming mobile phone networks. After many corridors, and by optimizing the measurements, they end up finding the building in which the manager’s apartment is located. Due to the effect of the jamming and its illegal nature, the clients then requested the assistance of the public prosecutor, which made it possible to organize a police operation.

“We park too far and finish on foot. The building is a 9-storey building bar with stairs. We walk the floors with the police officers and locate the apartment, the directional antenna in hand, although there is still some uncertainty”, explains an ANFR agent.

And to continue, a little further: “A policeman knocks on the door, a lady opens… BRI takes over the apartment, everything goes very quickly. After controlling the occupants, we enter the building and look for the jammer. This is a multi-band jammer, installed in the drawer of the TV cabinet. We immediately unplug it and put it OPJ under seal”

You can see the respective jammer in the image below:

© ANFR

Since the owner of the aircraft was not present at the time of the search, he received a summons and had to explain the presence of this substance. In France, it is strictly forbidden to own or use this type of device. Any violation is punishable by penalties of up to 6 months in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros.

Before his trial, the person in question also had to pay a tax of 450 euros for “ANFR intervention costs”. He has since offered his version of the facts – but the latter didn’t really convince the NNA. The latter actually states that he simply wanted to prevent his neighbors from calling the box in his apartment …

This is not a very reliable reason since his hardware should also be affected by the interference and thus should not be able to connect to his internet box when the device was on.