Three families using illegal signal booster devices were prosecuted

On the afternoon of April 3, the Radio Frequency Department, Ministry of Science and Technology said it had discovered and handled three illegal mobile signal booster devices in Hung Yen, on March 30 and April 2.

Based on data analysis of the iSpectra frequency monitoring system, the Regional Radio Frequency Center V detected three mobile signal booster devices (repeater) operating illegally. This causes harmful interference to many mobile communication base stations in the province. The Center then coordinated with the Provincial Department of Science and Technology and local authorities to measure, check and process.

According to actual inspection results, these repeater devices are all unlicensed products in Vietnam, purchased by households from a large e-commerce platform, then installed and used by themselves for the purpose of enhancing the signal in the home.

However, because these devices do not meet technical standards, they emit radiation that is not regulated, directly affecting the operation of many mobile communication base stations in the area. They can cause problems such as dropped calls, reduced data access speeds and reduced service quality.

The Regional Radio Frequency Center V then made a record of administrative violations and issued a penalty decision for violators; At the same time, force the dismantling and destruction of all illegal wave generating equipment according to the provisions of law.

According to Decree 15 of 2020 on handling administrative violations in the fields of postal, telecommunications, radio frequencies, information technology and electronic transactions, the fine is 1-2 million VND for the act of using a mobile radio station belonging to the internal radio information network without a license.

In case of using radio frequencies and equipment without a license, the fine is 2-5 million VND for equipment with a broadcasting capacity of less than or equal to 15 W, which can increase to 50-70 million VND for radio equipment with a broadcasting capacity of 10-20 kW.

According to the Department’s recommendations, people in weak signal areas making it difficult to communicate with mobile phones can notify the hotline number of the corresponding mobile information service provider for support to fix the problem, instead of installing a signal booster device themselves.

According to the most recent statistics in 2024, the Radio Frequency Department discovered and handled 46 organizations and individuals fined for violations of using mobile communication repeater stations, also known as signal booster devices.

iSpectra is a platform developed by the Radio Frequency Department and put into use since last year. This platform has the ability to detect and localize interference sources for mobile devices. A special feature of iSpectra is that it does not use traditional frequency control equipment, but uses the network’s own BTS stations as interference monitoring sensors.