The Philippines' Globe Telecom is cracking down on the use of illegal signal transmitters after detecting interference in more than 1,200 cell sites this year as a result of the use of signal boosters and other illegal transmitters.
Globe announced that around 60% of affected sites are in the Metro Manila area, and the interference has caused mobile customers within the affected sites' coverage areas to experience dropped calls, garbled lines, weak signals and slow browsing.
As well as illegal repeaters and signal boosters, Globe has been working to identify, locate and shut down illegal RFID systems found interfering with Globe's cellular network by operating in cellular frequency bands outside the allocated RFID frequency band.
Although Globe has been able to shut down about 210 illegal repeaters and RFID systems as of last September, the operator said this is just the tip of the iceberg because less than 10% of the sites affected have been cleared of interference.
”While illegal signal boosters may enhance wireless coverage in a particular area, such devices, when improperly designed or installed, will cause interference with mobile networks and thus will impede communication services, including emergency calls in the community,” Globe general council Froilan Castelo said.
“Thus, the illegal use of such devices does not solve signal issues but rather lead to service degradation of telecommunication companies. On the other hand, RFIDs should not pose a problem for as long as these are operating outside of the cellular frequency bands and only in RFID bands allocated by NTC.”
Globe has also been working with regulator NTC to bring to light cases of signal interference caused by illegal transmitters. Castelo said collaboration with the NTC will be critical to addressing the problem.