Cell phones killing transponders

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Date: 2002-09-03

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Some 40,000 of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's 603,000 Fast Lane transponders are reckoned to have "passed on" prematurely due to a problem with certain digital cell phones. Apparently, batteries in the transponders were being activated by calls to or from the cell phones and petering out after a year rather then their 10-year life expectancy.

''To ensure transponders would be compliant with all frequencies being considered by the FCC, early devices were designed to respond to a wide range of frequencies,'' said Mark Capper, president of Mark IV, which manufactures the transponders. ''Since the introduction of electronic toll collection, the FCC has licensed the 1,800-megahertz band for cellphone usage and through a tenet of physics, certain cellphones can trigger the transponder,'' he said.

Users can't replace the batteries themselves and are advised to call the Turnpike Authority if they get two or three yellow warning lights when going through tolls. "All dead transponders will be replaced free of charge as long as they haven't been put in a microwave or opened up and tinkered with," says the MTA's Bob Bliss. Read the Boston Globe article

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