FCC November Deadline for Part 90 Class B Signal-Booster Users

A November deadline to register a Part 90 Class B signal booster with the FCC may not be known to everyone in the industry. If you are an operator of this signal booster, you must register the devices, including their location, by November 1, 2014. According to IWCE, “the requirement applies only to Class B signal boosters, referred to as ‘broadband bidirectional amplifiers,’ which amplify all signals within the passband of the signal booster filter. In contrast, Class A boosters—known as ‘narrowband BDAs’—amplify only those discrete channels that are intended to be retransmitted, so they are exempt from this requirement. The only requirement prior to the commission’s order was that the licensee needed to ensure that the signal booster complied with Part 90 rules. Now, however, the FCC ‘has made it clear’ that any entity that misses this deadline will be subject to enforcement action, Buckley said. But she added that the registration process should be relatively easy and free of charge for most entities, though some may discover via the registration process that they actually are operating illegally.”