interfaces with the phone through a standard phone jack. It Communicates with a similar unit, or with the "FDS-100" unit,

designed for radio, which retails for $395. Both

devices use voice

inversion. Much higher security can be obtained from their other two devices, the "Telecode Three" which retails for $595 and the These use a nonlinear

"FDS-300" which retails for $795.

circuit-board that retails for

884-79811. The "VPU-1" is a small

$199. It provides full duplex voice inversion, and can be built into a radiotelephone or added on. In large lots, there is a discount of "about 25 percent." Planned for release later this year is the "VPU-3" which is expected to provide the same capability at a lower

cost.

MX-COM, INC. [4800 Bethania Station Road, Winston-Salem, NC; (919) 744-50501. This company mak es integrated circuits for two-way

radios. Three voice security Microchips development, representing three degrees of

are currently under

with

sophistication,
$10 to $20 price

somewhat different applications. All are in the range for single copies.

RESEARCH ELECTRONICS, INC. [1570 Brown Avenue, Cookeville, TN 38501; introduced in August, 1985, is a

(800) 824-3190). Model "ACS-2",

one-piece, acoustic-coupled device retailing for $299 per unit. In addition to supplying voice inversion scrambling, at the onset of a call, the device has an automatic "handshake" procedure that verifies that both parties are authorized to descramble each other's

transmissions.

The device mounts on the telephone handset; no wire

connection is required.

STANDARD MICROSYSTEMS [35 Marcus Boulevard, Hauppage, NY 11788; (516)

273-31001. We submitted information

on the company's $7 "COM9046"

voice inversion integrated circuit

with our Janaury 30, 1986

statement. Mr. Jacques Hakim of the Company informed us that over a

cellular companies have purchased batches experimental development of products

dozen radio, telephone and
of the Microchip for
incorporating it. AT&T was said
Hakim's impression is that Webcor
cellular radiotelephone

using the

year.

TRANSCRYPT INTERNATIONAL,

INC. [1440 Buckingham Drive, Lincoln, NE

68506; (402) 483-2961. The "SC-400" is a hybrid thick-film circuit about the size of two postage stamps (1.53 by .83 inches) designed to fit inside a radio or phone housing. It offers voice inversion with coding sequences. Single copies retail for

four

programmable

$158.50; in batches of one thousand, they are "under 100 dollars." An add-on device, the "SC-450" will be announced in April, and "could be made available for the same prices." The "SC-450" will be a

substantial

improvement

in security, using a rolling-code

inversion with several thousand possible codes.

voice

Keeps your car phone conversations private. The Priva-Call Scrambler helps prevent car phone eavesdropping by scrambling your conversations while they're being transmitted-on the air waves and on the telephone land lines. Two Scramblers are needed to ensure privacy-one for your cellular car phone, the other for a land line phone.

Affordable. The Priva-Call Scrambler is very affordable compared to the high-priced, high security scramblers which can cost you twice as much.

Extra Security. The Priva-Call Scrambler offers you a choice of 25 identification codes to further ensure your privacy. It operates on simple frequency inversion scrambling, so the new 800 MHz scanner is incapable of hearing your cellular conversation.

While Cellular One distributes the Priva-Call Scrambler in
an effort to provide privacy, it is not ensured or guaranteed.

MOBILE PHONE NEWS, January 15, 1986

PEOPLE

Page 6

The FCC's highest award for distinguished service at the commission, the Gold Medal for 1985, was presented to Daniel Armstrong, associate general counsel/litigation, and Albert Halprin, chief, common carrier bureau. Claudia Pabo, deputy chief, common carrier bureau policy and planning division; Ron Lepkowski, chief, common carrier bureau satellite radio branch; and CLyde Whitlock, chief, office of managing director, operations support division, services and supply branch received the silver medals, signifying meritorious service.

In

The board of directors of Ericsson Inc. has elected Bjorn Svedberg company chairman. He will continue his duties as chief executive officer and president of LM Ericsson. addition, to "further demonstrate Ericsson's commitment to the U.S. telecommunications market" the board announced that a U.S. executive will be named president of Ericsson Inc., headquartered in Richardson, Texas.

Jerrold Adams, former manager at AT&T Information Systems Inc., has been named president of the New York City market's nonwireline system. Adams will be responsible for starting up Cellular Telephone Co.'s New York service--expected to be up in the first quarter of this year (MPN, Dec. 25, 1985, p. 6).

Several recent promotions and appointments have taken place at Quintron Corp. Neil Quellhorst has been appointed vice president of engineering; Clark Emerick has been named cellular product manager; Brian Cox has been promoted to executive-level engineering professional; and Scott McFarland has joined Quintron as lead engineer.

The Antenna Specialists Co. has promoted 4 people in its marketing department. Alex Dolgosh has been named director of marketing; Robert Levy has been promoted to sales manager, national accounts; Patricia Fritz has been named the company's new Western regional manager; amd Kim Goryance has been promoted to Eastern regional manager.

Is your cellular phone call secure? Congress is toying with legislation that would make it illegal to eavesdrop on radiotelephone calls--a new law that does about as much to guarantee your privacy as dressing with your window shades open.

One answer to cellular privacy is to use some sort of encryption, but scramblers are expensive--from $500 to $5,000 or more.

With their frequent hand-offs and low power, cellular calls enjoy a high level of security already, but that security is gradually decreasing as 800 MHz scanners become more popular among electronic voyeurs.

Instead of trying to sidestep the privacy issue by lobbying for an unenforceable law, the cellular industry should come up with its own way to offer a higher degree of security. Here's an idea that might work with a slight modification to the MTSO soft

ware:

Instruct the central switch to "hand off" in-progress cellular calls more frequently, perhaps every 10 seconds or so. Hand-offs occur when the cellphone moves between cells, but there is no reason why a hand-off couldn't be made from one frequency to another within a single cell. The military has been using a similar type of frequency hopping to secure its transmission for many years.

Frequent hand-offs would frustrate the scanner-hobbyist crowd and make cellular calls almost 100% secure. The carrier could charge a slight premium for this higher security, thus bringing in additional revenues with no additional expense in equipment.

The ultimate solution is to go to digital, but until we do, frequency hopping offers an inexpensive interim solution to the question of cellular privacy.

The Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties and the Administration of Justice, which I chair, is holding hearings on H.R. 3378, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1985. The purpose of this bill is to extend the protection of the Wiretap Act (Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968) to new communications technologies.

The Subcommittee is interested in obtaining the opinion of the Department of Justice on the status under current law of willful unauthorized interception of certain telephone calls, specifically:

(1) between cellular and landline telephones;
(2) between two cellular telephones;

(3)

(4)

between cordless and landline telephones; and
between two cordless telephones.

In addition, it would be useful to know whether the Department would consider an advertisement promoting the use of a device for such interception to be a violation of 18 U.S.C. 2512(1)(c)(ii). For your reference, I have enclosed a copy of an advertisement that has been made a part of the Subcommittee's hearing record, as well as a second advertisement recently provided to the Subcommittee.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation in this request. It would be helpful to have a response within 10 business days.