Globe partners with retailers in campaign vs signal boosters

MANILA, Philippines - Major retailers of gadgets and information technology (IT) equipment partnered with Globe Telecom Inc. to strengthen the government’s campaign against illegal repeaters and signal boosters.

Froilan Castelo, head of Corporate Legal Services Group of Globe, said the company has signed a deal with retailers to curb the practice of selling signal boosters that do not comply with the specifications of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).

Castelo said retailers including CD-R King General Merchandise, Electronics Boutique, and Smile-Com committed to discontinue selling signal boosters that do not comply with NTC specifications causing mobile network interference.

From a consumer experience, signal interference leads to dropped calls, garbled lines, and weak signal.

He added that the retailers also vowed to exclude the illegal repeaters and signal boosters from any form of promotion such as listings, brochures, labels, flyers, advertisements and other printed or digital paraphernalia.

“We appreciate the cooperation of the major retailers of gadgets and technology items in the country to support our drive against the use of illegal repeaters. Many of the existing retailers have been previously unaware that the sale of such equipment violates existing laws,” he stressed.

NTC commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba earlier issued Memorandum Order 01-02-2013 laying down the guidelines on the prohibition of portable cellular mobile repeater and portable cell site equipment.

The order prohibits the sale, purchase, importation, possession or use of cellular mobile repeaters and portable cell sites operating on 800 megahertz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2100 MHz frequency bands.

Portable cell sites and portable radio equipment or devices refer to radio equipment capable of sending messages to all subscribers within a radius of three kilometers to five kilometers providing an instant network in a “box solution.”

On the other hand, cellular mobile repeaters in the form of indoor or outdoor antennas and wireless adapters refer to devices that receive signal and regenerate the signals from one receiver to another.