FCC Exploring Cell Booster Ban

[al904]

FCC Exploring Cell Booster Ban

Phonescoop:

The Federal Communications Commission is currently seeking comments on the idea of banning cell signal boosters. Boosters are used to extend or enhance network coverage in a given area, such as a car or home. The CTIA claims that cell boosters interfere with the networks of providers such as Sprint and T-Mobile. It has asked the FCC to outlaw use and/or installation of boosters by anyone other than those with commercial mobile radio service licenses. Wilson Electronics, a maker of cell boosters, claims that better standardization and regulation can prevent the boosters from interfering with cellular networks and can even benefit them. It proposed several ideas that could help resolve the issue, including better self-diagnostic performance of boosters that shut down when interference is detected, better ability to determine how close cell towers are, and be able to amplify signals both from the tower and to the tower. The FCC will stop accepting comments February 5, which will be followed by a period for responses to the comments.

[theproto]

This is funny, I have an R-TRON MINI IDEN 25 commercial repeater at home bought brand new in it's sealed box (from Sprint with previous shipping labels intact) with a genuine NEXTEL asset tag on the device from a liquidation company last year.

I would say the hardware is certified but wonder what will ever come of this ruling once all is done.

[Justin]

I'm really hoping this doesn't happen. That'd be a bit ridiculous, especially because the potential to innovate to avoid interference is very high.

[al904]

I used a Wilson repeater in my SUV for three or four years. A couple of months ago, I traded that vehicle, and haven't yet installed the Wilson kit in my new one. I did quite a bit of testing of its effectiveness. It did exactly what Wilson said it would do and it really performed well! During my travels in some of the remote mountain areas of the Carolinas and Tennessee, the repeater gave me useable connections where I couldn't connect without it.

In my opinion, cellular repeaters are like most products available to consumers. They range in quality from the best to the worst. I believe Wilson is one of the best.

The Wilson Electronics website says:

Facts About Amplifier Performance

Understanding amplifier performance is extremely important when researching different amplifier products on the market. At Wilson, we stand by our claim that our amplifiers perform better than any of our competition because we design and engineer them to work better than our competitors. After testing by our own engineering staff, we have an outside, accredited, independent cellular industry testing laboratory verify our test results with their own testing.

There are three major performance specifications that form the basis for a performance comparison: The first performance specification is receiver sensitivity, which is the ability of the amplifier receiver to pick up a weak signal from a Carrier’s cell site. Testing must be done with the correct criteria and methodology using equipment specifically made for testing cell phones. Wilson has the ability to do this type of testing in our engineering facility where we have a cell site simulator and a double electrically insulated radio frequency (RF) enclosure.

Once we test internally, then we have our testing results independently verified by an outside testing laboratory that performs tests for the major carriers and cellular manufacturers.

The performance standard we test against is the CDMA performance standard. This is the most complete and preferred testing standard because it tests for the weakest signal that will still give a usable, quality voice and data output from the test device with a 0.5% frame error rate (FER) or less. In other words, an amplifier with better receiver sensitivity can detect a weaker signal, which allows the cell site to communicate with the cell phone at a greater distance. Wilson outperforms all the competition on the CDMA performance standard.

By using the CDMA performance standard as a baseline, a true comparison can be made between cell phone and amplifier performance. A typical cell phone must have a sensitivity of -104 dBm or better. The higher the dBm number a tested device gets, the weaker a signal that it can receive and pass the test. (For example, a -110 dBm level can pick up a signal 6 dB weaker than -104 dBm.) A 6 dB improvement in receiver sensitivity will allow an amplifier to pick up the same signal at twice the distance from the cell site.
Using the same CDMA performance testing standard, the Wilson Dual-Band Direct Connection Amplifier on 1900 MHZ has a -109.3 dBm receiver sensitivity, while the Digital Antenna DA4000 Amplifier has a sensitivity of only -104.2 dBm. That means the Wilson amplifier can pick up a signal 79% farther than the Digital amplifier on flat terrain.

Misleading sensitivity claims are used by our competition, which is why we test their products against ours. Digital Antenna claims their direct connect amplifier’s receiver has a sensitivity of -123 dBm. This higher number is meaningless because it gets higher and higher by reducing the received bandwidth during testing. The measurement must be done at the cell system bandwidth as the established benchmark and then be compared with other amplifiers using the same comparison criteria on the same CDMA cell site test set. This is the methodology we use at Wilson and the standard used by all other accredited comparison tests.

The second performance specification is the Transmit Test, which includes open loop power, closed loop power, minimum and maximum power tests for CDMA to assure the amplifier meets CDMA specifications and will not harm the Carrier’s cell site. Some amplifiers such as the Richardson Electronics B800-1900-1 do not even meet the minimum power requirements for the cell phone being tested (see test results, click here).

The third performance specification is to test for quality control and assurance. Wilson uses sophisticated automatic computer testing stations that run as many as 40 different operational tests on each amplifier before it is shipped out to our product dealers. This assures consistency that each amplifier has been tested for performance and meets our quality control criteria before it is shipped out.

Our approach at Wilson is to follow these three performance specifications in determining the performance of our amplifiers. We publish the test results and make the comparisons against our competition available for product dealers and customers to make an informed decision about what product to purchase. We stand by the testing results that show Wilson products outperform the competition!

My feeling about government intrusiveness in the marketplace is that unless public safety is involved, competition is a better regulator than any politician will ever be.

[ibooster]

My understanding is that wilson is very actively working with its legal team to able to sell cell phone boosters which naturally keep the competition and naturally better products at better price. The phone companies feel the need to extend its power every thing cell phone and any periferels that the cell phones may use, watch out they may even be coming after the shiny pink cell phone covers, because they are too shinny and blind the cell towers