Why Notify Cellular Carrier Before Using Cell Phone Signal Booster?

Just to clarify, when we say carrier must be notified, it does not mean that you literally need to call the carrier to tell them you're going to use a signal booster. It is much easier than that because you merely submit a booster registration online form at their website providing your cell phone number, signal booster serial number, and address where it will be used.

To precisely answer the question, providing such information can help your cellular carrier to contact you to request you to turn it off in a rare event it does not work properly and begins to damage their wireless network.

Such occurrences are rare because all our USA signal boosters are FCC certified and Canadian signal boosters are IC / ISED approved. Such approvals or certifications ensure that they work properly without damaging the cellular networks for the most part unless they have a manufacturers defect or they have got damaged due to severe impact or have come in contact with water causing water damage.

However, unlike the past when such regulations we not in place, there're hardly any such instances now. In the past, such instances were more frequent because some signal boosters would not power down or reduce amplification when oscillation was detected causing runaway oscillation causing damage to cell phone towers and network owned by carriers.

If a cell phone booster has already been registered, can someone else use it?

As long as they use the same carrier and live in the same household, it need not be re-registered. However, if the new user uses a different carrier's mobile network and/or lives at a different address, it must be re-registered. The reason for this is so the respective carrier can contact the new owner or user of phone booster to request to power it down or have it fixed under warranty in case it malfunctions and causes network problem or has potential to damage the respective service provider's wireless network.

That is the reason why mobile carriers collaborated with cell phone signal booster manufacturers and federal regulators to require certification and approval process to ensure signal boosters worked properly in proper manner to prevent damage to the network. Within those regulations, it also required cell subscribers that used them to notify their respective carrier to ensure that if and when that carrier detected a runaway oscillation occurrence, they can contact that signal booster user to request them to power it off and have it fixed or replaced to mitigate damage to the wireless network or stop interference that may otherwise prevent other cell phone subscribers using same cell tower from using their cellular service.

Therefore, to ensure that cell phone signal boosters do not interfere with cellular coverage, FCC has mandated signal boosters be registered with the respective phone carrier before use. All major carriers provide a cell phone signal booster registration system so consumers can register the address where they use the booster.