The FCC should not impose a registration obligation on “the...
The FCC should not impose a registration obligation on “the 2 million consumers who legally purchased boosters in good faith,” Public Knowledge Senior Vice President Harold Feld said in a meeting with Renee Gregory, aide to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski.…
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The FCC has teed up a report and order on cell signal boosters for its Feb. 20 meeting. A registration requirement would be “particularly unjust in light of the Commission’s previous determination to grandfather over a million illegally marketed wireless microphones, and grandfather users and uses that in no way even remotely complied with the existing rules,” Feld said (http://xrl.us/bofgc5). “Under what theory is it just, reasonable and non-arbitrary for the FCC to fully pardon Broadway theaters and karaoke bars, but to impose new burdens on rural users and others who purchased lawfully marketed devices, and who rely upon these devices not for karaoke, but for vital communication services?” The FCC should also allow at least a year for booster makers to sell off their current inventory and convert to a new standard, Feld said. “The absence of evidence of widespread interference issues, coupled with the fact that the devices were legally manufactured and sold in accordance with the Commission’s rules (as understood at the time), argues for a reasonable transition period that will not impose significant costs on either merchants or manufacturers,” he said.