Verizon: More than 10,000 customers are using signal boosters, and none is causing interference

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) urged the FCC not to modify rules for consumer signal boosters, saying the current regulations have adequately addressed interference concerns. The carrier added that more than 10,000 of its customers are registered users of signal boosters, more than twice as many as used them last year.

The FCC expanded rules addressing signal boosters in 2013, requiring users to register their devices and mandating that carriers establish systems for registration. The Commission also imposed stringent new technical rules addressing how consumer signal boosters must be manufactured.

CTIA agreed to those rules, effectively ending years of acrimony between booster manufacturers and carriers that had fought to ban the use or sale of the devices, claiming they interfere with cell signals. That interference can result in dropped and blocked calls, carriers have claimed, including 911 calls.

Boosters amplify signals between wireless devices and wireless networks, improving service where signal strength may be lacking. 

"And consumers are operating these consumer signal boosters without harming wireless carrier networks," the nation's largest carrier said in its FCC filing. "Prior to adoption of the current rules, Verizon and others cited numerous examples of interference to wireless and public safety networks caused by poorly manufactured or malfunctioning boosters. But the consumer signal booster design requirements adopted by the Commission… have all but eliminated the interference problems caused by signal boosters prior to the rules taking effect. Indeed, Verizon has experienced no significant booster-related interference issues since 2014."

The FCC last month released a Public Notice seeking comment on the state of consumer signal boosters in an effort to determine whether further action is needed to address interference concerns. Comments were due by Thursday, and replies to those comments are due April 14.

"There is no reason to modify the Commission's consumer signal booster rules at this time," Verizon's filing concludes. "Those rules are working as intended to make signal boosters available to customers that need them while protecting wireless networks from interference."

For more:
- see this FCC filing

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