ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tele­communication Authority (PTA) on Wednesday urged the Federal Board of Revenue to stop illegal imports of GSM boosters that cause interference in frequency bands of mobile companies and deteriorates quality of cellular services in the area where these amplifiers are installed.

In a letter to the FBR Member Customs, the telecom authority said only licensed Cellular Mobile Operators (CMOs) are authorised to install such devices at the users’ premises.

“However, it has been observed through field experience, complaints from the operators and subsequent field monitoring by the Frequency Allocation Board that there is an increasing trend of using sub-standard ‘GSM Boosters/Amplifiers/Repeaters’ by the general public,” the PTA letter said.

Only CMOs are allowed to import GSM amplifiers. All other licensees and non-licensees are not allowed to import equipment like the GSM amplifiers, the PTA said. “It has been noticed that GSM amplifiers are available in open market and installation of such devices by end-users is increasingly causing interference to existing mobile operators and PTA licensees causing degradation of service and poor quality of service to end-users,” the letter added.

The PTA has also said that the majority of the GSM amplifiers are Chinese and do not have manufacturer and model number written on them.

The letter has been written after complaints by the mobile companies that around 25 per cent of complaints regarding poor quality of signals were due to GSM amplifiers installed in those areas.

Published in Dawn, February 18th, 2021