Passive repeaters for better Mobile signal

[pmrid (Peter)]

A cautionary tale. If, like me, you live in an area with weak mobile phone signal you may have thought about what you can do to improve it, at least around the home. There are signal boosters (which are totally illegal) and Passive Repeaters. They are heavily regulated by the ACMA. And it has some pretty darned strict rules about what can operate with the 3G and 4G bands. Both Telstra and Optus (which also covers several others like Amaysim, Vodafone etc) each have a single device they may give you permission to use on their mobile network. And they're expensive. ( About A$800-900 for an installation).

Seeking alternatives, I recently did some Google surfing and came up with a couple of companies with names which suggested they were Australian. I won't repeat them here but you'll certainly find them easily enough. I wrote to one of them asking about the legality of their devices for Australian use.

I got a reply from another company but in response to my original inquiry. Clearly they are related entities. That reply said this:

" This statement provides a guarantee that the use of a XXXXX product is completely legal for use in the AU based on the information below.All personal repeaters are legal to own and operate for home or office use.Here is also a copy of legal licence for you to read.

XXXXXX systems, which incorporate interference protection electronics, do not cause harmful interference to the Mobile Provider’s networks and therefore are legal to purchase, install and operate within the AU. XXXXX hereby guarantees this statement. Although highly unlikely, and XXXXXX equipment found to cause interference will be replaced on warranty. "

So I decided to write to the ACMA and ask them specifically about these companies and their guarantee. I got a reply from ACMA saying this:

" The ACMA has had several dealings with XXXXXXXX Australia and XXXXXXXX Australia. They have also been the issue of an investigation and finding from the Office of Fair Trading in NSW.

These devices cannot be connected to any mobile or fixed phone network unless you have written permission form the carrier. The claims on the websites you mention below are not correct. Unless you have written authorisation from your carrier to use the device they cannot be used. "

As a matter of interest, I then decided to see whether these 2 companies actually existed at the addresses given in their advertising. One of them turned out to be a shop-front mail-box service (which you could see using Google Maps Street View). The other was so non-specific (Oxford Street, Sydney) that it was impossible to check.

So be warned folks. There are traps for the unwary.

pETER

[Shano592 (Shane)]

Yeah, Peter... ACMA don't mess around with this sort of thing.

Traps (Fines) can be significantly large ... upwards of a nice Officina Stellare!

Kudos to you for chasing it up. I wonder of Tel$tra or Optus would give a green light to these specific ones, if asked?

[bojan]

Originally Posted by Shano592

...I wonder of Tel$tra or Optus would give a green light to these specific ones, if asked?

I think they would't.
Mobile operators are very fussy about anything connected to their networks.. The problem is, any of those devices will disrupt the balance between upload and downloar RF levels, which should be kept at certain optimal relationship. The only thing that could help, does't disrupt the network and that could be legal is a passive repeater (without any electronics) consisting of two high gain and high directivity antennas connected with coaxial cable.. One of the antennas should be mounted on the high pole, the second one should be close where the mobile is.

[Tandum (Robin)]

Peter,
I have a couple of customers in the far eastern suburbs (read that as Wellington Point) on Optus who have Optus branded and supplied home mobile phone boosters installed. I dunno how they work, nor do I want to, but they plug into the adsl router so I assume some signalling goes on there. But these people tell me they work.

I'm on an Optus reseller and if I go indoors out that way I get SOS calls only so they need something.

[bugeater (Marty)]

Originally Posted by Tandum

Peter,
I have a couple of customers in the far eastern suburbs (read that as Wellington Point) on Optus who have Optus branded and supplied home mobile phone boosters installed. I dunno how they work, nor do I want to, but they plug into the adsl router so I assume some signalling goes on there. But these people tell me they work.

I'm on an Optus reseller and if I go indoors out that way I get SOS calls only so they need something.

I think these things are called femtocells.

[pmrid (Peter)]

Originally Posted by bugeater

I think these things are called femtocells.

These femtocells seem interesting at first glance. But they have negatives. You're using your own paid-for ADSL to "patch "your broadband phone carrier's network and paying for the same data twice - once to your IP and then to your phone provider. Seems a poor deal.

And if you have broadband internet anyway, which can give you VOIP, why do you want to mess with your mobile phone?

And finally, since we're on satellite out here in the sticks, the latency inherent in that signal, and it's very flaky nature, makes that unworkable either via VOIP or a femtocell. So it's a Passive Repeater or nothing for me I think.

Peter

[bugeater (Marty)]

Originally Posted by pmrid

These femtocells seem interesting at first glance. But they have negatives. You're using your own paid-for ADSL to "patch "your broadband phone carrier's network and paying for the same data twice - once to your IP and then to your phone provider. Seems a poor deal.

Peter

You pretty much hit the nail on the head. When I used to work in venture capital (quite a few years ago now), we looked at these and related technologies and came to a similar conclusion. Seemed like the carrier hand balling the problem to their client.