The recent FCC order extending the technical standards compliance deadline for all consumer signal boosters sold in the United States has been welcomed by companies such as Cellphone-Mate, makers of cell phone signal boosters.
The government has extended the deadline 60 days until April 30.
“This was a just and reasonable decision,” said Hongtao Zhan, Cellphone-Mate’s CEO. “As we pointed out in our comments supporting the extension request, since the delay was due to unforeseen delays in the government’s ability to meet its own deadline, it would not be fair to penalize both the manufacturers and consumers by holding fast to a date determined a year ago.”
Cellphone-Mate’s cell phone signal boosters are sold under the SureCall and Shakespeare AnyWhere brands.
According to Zhan, there were several factors that have led to a backlog of products from all booster makers that are awaiting approval. These have included a delay in the development of testing standards and procedures, the government shutdown, and a limited number of approved
testing facilities. Cellphone-Mate currently has 12 models engaged in the FCC certification process, said Zhan.
There were provisions of the original ruling on boosters that the government did not relax from the deadline including wireless providers being able to shut down any signal booster causing harmful interference to their operations or network performance.
Said Zhan, “The integrity of all the carrier networks should always be a primary concern, and all boosters should have built-in technology that protects these networks. It’s something we’ve always included in our products.”