I had someone tell me they could listen to anyone's cell phone call by using a scanner, is this true and if so does a cell phone use the same frequency every time a call is made?

No conversation transmitted across radio frequencies is completely secure, but you have a higher level of security with digital and PCS (personal communications service) phones than with analog phones. Conversations on analog phones can be intercepted on inexpensive and readily available radio scanners. But conversations on digital phones are encoded which makes them more difficult to intercept. Some of the newer PCS phones transmit your conversation across a spectrum of frequencies and even scramble it, making transmission almost impossible to intercept.

Yes the older cell phones as noted ( and of course all of the cordless phones in your home) can be listened to with the right equipment, normally just a scanner like used for police bands will not do this.

But yes obviously the signal is just being broadcast, and anyone with the right equipment and the right skills could listen to them.

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Originally Posted by jck4

I had someone tell me they could listen to anyones cell phone call by using a scanner, is this true and if so does a cell phone use the same frequency everytime a call is made?

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Yes its true unfortunately but its very complicated to do...