Globe Telecom has signed agreements with several major retailers of gadgets and IT equipment to help curb the practice of selling illegal repeaters or signal boosters.
The agreement binds retailers from peddling signal boosters that do not comply with NTC specifications and therefore cause mobile network interference. From a consumer experience, signal interference leads to dropped calls, garbled lines, and weak signal.
Aside from committing to discontinue the sale of illegal repeaters, large chain retailers including CD-R King General Merchandise, Electronics Boutique, and Smile-Com also committed to exclude any form of promotion such as listings, brochures, labels, flyers, advertisements and other printed or digital paraphernalia about mobile signal boosters.
“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,” said Atty. Froilan Castelo, head of Globe Corporate Legal Services Group.
He cited National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) Memorandum Order 01-02-2013, which prohibits the sale, use and possession of signal boosters without the approval of the regulatory agency.
Illegal repeaters come in the form of indoor or outdoor antennas and wireless adapters which boost network coverage and signal by hogging bandwidth from a legitimate network infrastructure.
The leading telecommunications company launched the campaign against illegal repeaters or signal boosters in 2011 following increasing incidence of signal interference cases, as revealed by the company’s own network monitoring group. The incidences of signal interference have since been reported regularly to the NTC.
Castelo also issued an appeal to Globe subscribers to immediately report to the company not only suspected cases of network interference due to illegal repeaters but specially retailers who continue to sell such equipment.
Globe continues to be vigilant in improving the network experience of its subscribers in light of its US$700 million network modernization program. It also urged the NTC to take a proactive stance against illegal telecommunications equipment entering the country and being sold to the unsuspecting public. So far, numerous incidences of interference had been noted particularly in the Metropolitan Manila area.
