Alright, alright. It was just a catchy title, but in reality: ISRAEL HAS BANNED THE iPAD!
True, bizarre story. If you’re planning a trip there, just leave you’re iPad at home because the Holy Land has banned all iPad imports (even from tourists). If you’re found with an iPad the government will even confiscate it and charge you a fee to store it. WTF?!
Israeli spokesperson Nati Schubert says that the reasons that the FCC allows WiFi broadcasting at elevated levels compared to those in Europe and Israel. If a bunch more people start using iPads, the fear is that too much bandwidth will be used up and complicate usage of other devices.
“If you operate equipment in a frequency band which is different from the others that operate on that frequency band, then there will be interference,” Nati Schubert, a senior deputy director for the Communications Ministry told AP. “We don’t care where people buy their equipment … but without regulation, you would have chaos.”
According to the AP, 10 iPads have already been confiscated, and this isn’t the first time Israel has been hesitant to embrace Apple products: they just recently started allowing the iPhone. Whoa.
A land without iPads does, however, does seem a little holier to me.
