Comments Support Safer Buildings Coalition's Calls for Signal Booster Rules
The Safer Buildings Coalition (SBC) got support for its July petition asking the FCC to launch a rulemaking on guidelines for getting consent from licensees to install signal boosters. Comments were due Oct. 16, replies Oct. 31, in docket RM-12009, but that schedule was disrupted by the federal government shutdown (see 2511130050). Many of the filings, which were posted Thursday, raised public safety concerns.
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The Industry Council for Emergency Response Technologies agreed with SBC on the need for rules. “As the SBC Petition notes, signal boosters are being installed without the express consent of authorized public safety licensees, as required by the FCC’s rules, and are designed or deployed in a way that causes harmful interference to public safety operations.”
Improperly deployed boosters have interfered with, degraded and disrupted “public safety communications during emergency responses, potentially putting lives at risk,” said Butch Browning, executive director of the National Association of State Fire Marshals. “These interference issues often stem from a lack of coordination between fire and building code officials and licensees, with regulatory authority misdirected away from the legal frequency license holders.”
Nextivity, a provider of in-building coverage solutions, also supported SBC. While consumer signal boosters are “well regulated” by the FCC, “with specific network safeguards in place, we agree with the SBC that the framework for Industrial Signal Boosters lacks the specificity of the Consumer Signal Booster framework and as such, creates the opportunity for poorly designed or installed systems to create network interference.”
Nextivity backed a rule change to require license holders to make available a minimum set of information to installers to aid in the design and deployment of authorized systems. “Such minimum set of information is often lacking and can lead to systems being mis-configured on deployment, which may lead to interference issues.”
Commdex, which installs emergency responder communication enhancement systems, urged the FCC to promulgate rules. The current framework for signal boosters is “insufficient,” it said. “Improperly deployed boosters routinely cause interference with public safety two-way radio systems, which will significantly impact or eliminate the ability for first responders and other emergency personnel from communicating.”
Oakland County, Michigan, said it has “expended county resources” tracking oscillating bidirectional amplifiers (BDAs), and rules “will go far toward minimizing issues in the future.” However, the county said rules will do little “to ameliorate the issues of poor engineering and installation of BDA systems unless comprehensive standards for training along with a means to assess competency are insisted upon for personnel and suppliers engaged in the field.” Rule changes will also “do nothing to address the issue of unregistered devices,” it said.