Starting March 1st, if you’re one of the 2 million folks who has a cell phone booster (or plan on purchasing one in the future), you’ll need to have permission from your carrier before you can use it. The FCC defines that “Signal boosters are devices that can help cell phone users improve their coverage in areas where they do not get a good signal.” As both a proactive and reactive move, their reasoning is “although signal boosters can improve cell phone coverage, malfunctioning, poorly designed, or improperly installed signal boosters can interfere with wireless networks and cause interference to a range of calls, including emergency and 911 calls.”
The FCC addressed the issue of interference saying:
“If a wireless provider or the FCC asks you to turn off your signal booster because it is causing interference to a wireless network, you must turn off your booster and leave it off until the interference problem can be resolved. When the new rules go into effect, you will be able to purchase a booster with additional safeguards that protect wireless networks from interference.”
Previously the FCC had redacted a statement saying, “Absent your provider’s permission, you may not continue using your booster.” While the FCC is not out-and-out saying to go ahead and keep using unapproved signal boosters, the consequences for doing so are still unknown. If caught, you’d be in violation and could be fined or at least would receive a letter, but it’s still a little grey as to what would happen so YMMV.
So what does this all mean? The burden is on carriers to inform customers of problems with their signal boosters, whether they’re registered or not. There’ll be a mechanism through providers to register unapproved boosters, but this process hasn’t even begun yet. New signal boosters built under the updated FCC guidelines will go on sale in late 2013 and ones approved by AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile, as well as most other carriers will have the following label:
I’d say if you use a signal booster and March 1st comes around, check with your carrier. Yours may already be approved by your carrier and you don’t even know it. I’m not sure how the registration process will work and each respective carrier may handle it differently, but it’s best to go to them directly with your questions. Hopefully they’ll have this sorted out quickly.
Source: Â Ars Technica
