The committee under DG Prisons, Sanjay Beniwal looked into the present system, it's drawbacks and introduction of the ‘Harmonious Call Blocking System’ (HCBS) for blocking 2G, 3G and 4G signals that could later also be suitable for 5G

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New Delhi, March 3

The persisting issue of illegal use of mobile phones in jails of Delhi is now going to be probed at a high level with the nod from Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to constitute a high-level committee to suggest ways and identify means to address the issue of illegal and unauthorised telephone communication from city jails.

The committee has been constituted under Director General (Prisons) that will find jamming solutions emerging in the market in addition to the existing infrastructure and their testing in prisons to check their effectiveness at blocking incoming/outgoing calls, SMS and data services on prison premises.

The committee will have representatives from the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Department of Telecommunication (DoT), the Delhi Police, IIT-Delhi, the Center for Development of Telematics, the Special Protection Group and the Defence Research and Development Organisation. 

The committee shall submit the report of the recommendations to the L-G after a month. 

The prisons had been using jammers in and around the jails from several years however these have been blocking the 2G & 3G mobile signals. After the introduction of 4G services in the country and now the emreging 5G network, it has become essential to get jammers for the atest network available. 

The Tihar and Rohini Jail have 31 jammers installed between 2006 and 2008, which have ben functioning however after the introduction of the 4g network, the annual maintenance contracts were not renewed after November 2016. 31 mobile jammers were installed at Tihar and Rohini jails between 2008 and 2012 to block 2G & 3G mobile signals.

The officials have thought over the advanced  ‘Harmonious Call Blocking System’ (HCBS) for blocking 2G, 3G and 4G signals that could later also be suitable for 5G. This involves installation of one or more ‘Special Tower’ on jail premises known as T-HCBS that follow a hybrid approach to jamming solutions which were then installed in various prisons.

However, this also bring in a problem for residents in the neighbourhood casing a problem of blocking calls and data services of ordinary citizens living in residential areas around jails. In addition to that another skirmish with the system is that if the dominant T-HCBS or the second layer tower fails to generate signals, the third layer tower can also provide signals for executing calls and therefore 100% call blocking could not be achieved.

The functioning of T-HCBS was also affected by various other factors such as non-coverage of dark areas, shadow areas, multi-path propagation, fading and atmospheric conditions among others and, in sum, could not achieve 100% blockage of signals due to these constraints.

The L-GG's office stated that to curb the menace of mobiles and SIM cards in prisons and to ensure that no mobile communication is possible in jail premises, a high level committee has been proposed to look into issues and restraints.