47FCR22 is the federal regulations the all cellular companies must operate within.

Parts relative to signal boosters are listed below.

Items that are highlighted in red are those commonly misrepresented by Internet signal booster (BDA) sellers.

Comments are in green.

Bi-Directional Amplifiers, aka BDAs, are called signal boosters by the FCC and that is their legal name.

§ 22.99 Definitions

In-building radiation systems. Supplementary systems comprising low power transmitters, receivers, indoor antennas and/or leaky coaxial cable radiators, designed to improve service reliability inside buildings or structures located within the service areas of stations in the Public Mobile Services.

Comment: "In-building radiation systems" not only encompasses signal booster devices used for in-building applications but any other form of in-building RF distribution system. This commonly called a distributed Antenna System or DAS for short. Nothing in this definition infers mobile operation.

Signal booster. A stationary device that automatically reradiates signals

from base transmitters without channel translation, for the purpose of improving

the reliability of existing service by increasing the signal strength in dead spots.

Comment: "Stationary" means signal boosters may NOT be used in ANY vehicle, including trucks and boats.

§ 22.377 Type-acceptance of transmitters.

Except as provided in paragraph (b) of this section, transmitters used in the Public Mobile Services, including those used with signal boosters, in-building radiation systems and cellular repeaters, must be type-accepted for use in the radio services regulated under this part.

Comment: Having FCC equipment approval is often used to infer no other FCC permission is used, which is incorrect. See below.

§ 22.383 In-building radiation systems.
Licensees may install and operate in-building radiation systems without applying for authorization or notifying the FCC, provided that the locations of the in-building radiation systems are within the protected service area of the licensee’s authorized transmitter(s) on the same channel or channel block.

§ 22.527 Signal boosters.

Licensees may install and operate signal boosters on channels listed in § 22.531 only in accordance with the provisions of § 22.165 governing additional

transmitters for existing systems. Licensees must not allow any signal booster that they operate to cause interference to the service or operation of any other authorized stations or systems.

Comment: Only the licensee (the cellular company) is authorized to operate a signal booster on cellular frequencies, not users of the cellular service. The cellular company can give limited permission to others to operate a signal booster on their FCC assigned channels. This approval must be documented for FCC inspection of the cellular company's records in case of interference.

Two common hoaxes used by Internet sellers of signal boosters is to say;

1. "We have FCC approval of our equipment and nothing else is needed."

There is nothing else needed by the manufacturer of the equipment or seller, BUT when the signal booster is OPERATED the rest of the FCC cellular rules are in effect and YOU, the user, will be fined, not the seller.

2. "Our BDA has been accepted by ALL the cellular companies".

- In most cases they aren't able to provide any written evidence of this.

- At least one BDA seller tried to say the approval of a local dealer who used the BDAs was the same as the cellular companies approval, which it isn't.

- A few manufacturers EQUIPMENT has been approved by cellular company for their internal, supervised use. However, a\n EQUIPMENT approval is BOT the same as an approval to use that BDA without the cellular companies approval of the specific installation. The cellular companies approval is still. required for each installation.

§ 22.535(f) Effective radiated power limits.
(f) Signal boosters. The effective radiated power of signal boosters must not exceed 5 watts ERP under any normal operating condition.

§22.537: Technical channel assignment criteria.
(g) In-building radiation systems. The locations of in-building radiation systems must be within the service contour(s) of the licensee’s authorized transmitter(s) on the same channel. In-building radiation systems are not protected facilities, and therefore do not have service or interfering contours.

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When in doubt ask the cellular company engineers directly (the salesman won't know) or ask the FCC for guidance.

The FCC rules are available on-line at ;

http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_08/47cfr22_08.html