FCC's Carr Readies Plan to Jam Contraband Cell Phones in State Prisons

FCC Chairman Brendan Carr is set to unveil a plan Wednesday that could allow state correctional facilities to jam signals from contraband cell phones, reviving one of the agency's most contested spectrum debates.

Carr will outline the proposal at a 10 a.m. ET press conference in Little Rock, Arkansas. He will appear alongside Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin (R), giving the announcement both federal regulatory weight and state-level political backing.

The chairman first proposed letting state and local prisons deploy approved jamming technology in September 2025. Wednesday's event marks the public return of that effort, which may have been refined in the months since the original outline.

What is the legal argument?

The plan rests on a reinterpretation of Section 333 of the Communications Act, the provision that bars willful or malicious interference with authorized radio communications. Carr has argued the FCC can read the statute to treat contraband cellphone use inside prisons as unauthorized communications in the first place — removing the legal barrier that has historically blocked jamming.

"What we can do at the federal level is we authorize communications or we don't authorize communications, and so what we're going to do is we're going to deauthorize the lawful use of contraband cell phones within the confines of prisons," Carr said last year in laying out the approach.

"So once contraband cellphone use is not an authorized communication, then the federal law is no longer a prohibition to jamming it," he said.

The argument is legally inventive. Rather than seeking new legislation, Carr proposes to use the FCC's existing authority over what counts as authorized spectrum use. Whether that reading survives challenge is a separate question, and the chairman's own framing acknowledges the plan has shifted "slightly" since he first presented it.

Why do prisons want jamming?

Contraband phones inside correctional facilities have long troubled state authorities. Inmates use smuggled devices to coordinate criminal activity beyond prison walls, and states have pressed the FCC for years to loosen the rules that prevent them from blocking the signals outright.

The push for jamming pits state corrections agencies against carriers and equipment makers with a competing commercial interest in managed-access systems, which intercept calls rather than blanketing spectrum. Carr's plan, if it proceeds as outlined, would give states a direct blocking tool instead.

What does this change for operators?

For wireless carriers, the stakes are spectrum integrity. Jamming inside prison walls risks spillover interference to lawful users nearby, the core concern behind Section 333's prohibition. Any FCC authorization scheme would presumably need technical conditions — approved equipment, confined footprints — to keep interference contained, though the details of Wednesday's plan remain to be seen.

For state prison systems, the plan could open a path that federal law has closed for years, letting them deploy technology already marketed for precisely this purpose.

What comes next?

Wednesday's press conference is an announcement, not a final rule. The FCC would still need to formalize any deauthorization approach, and the reinterpretation of Section 333 invites legal contest from parties opposed to prison jamming.

Carr's appearance with Cotton and Griffin signals that state-level pressure will stay part of the campaign. The September 2025 proposal set the direction; Wednesday's plan in Little Rock will show how far the chairman intends to push it, and on what timeline.