If you give a cell booster as a gift, do you have to preregister it?

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The holiday season is long past us but that doesn’t mean we stop giving gifts. If you’re a particularly generous techie, you might want to consider giving the gift of a cellular signal booster from Solid Signal. You might stop, though, when you realize cell boosters need to be registered according to the law. Should that put you off? Let’s take a closer look

About cell booster registration

The registration process was created because carriers were really worried that cell boosters would destroy their networks. I get it, but let’s face facts. That’s a silly concern. Every cell booster approved by the FCC has fancy circuits in them to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’m sure that those circuits could fail, and the circuits that test them could fail, but that’s pretty unlikely.

But whatever. Cell booster registration is a fact. Luckily it’s easy and it can be done with any carrier even if you have a different one. Here’s a quick list of some links to cell carrier registration pages:

AT&T
https://securec45.securewebsession.com/attsignalbooster.com/

Verizon
http://www.verizonwireless.com/wcms/consumer/register-signal-booster.html

Sprint
http://www.sprint.com/legal/fcc_boosters.html

T-Mobile
https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-9827

US Cellular
http://www.uscellular.com/uscellular/support/fcc-booster-registration.jsp/

You don’t have to do it for them

You don’t need to register the booster when you buy it. It’s supposed to be registered before it’s installed, but it’s not like you have to fill out a form in order to buy a booster. It’s a consumer product like any other. You add it to your cart and you buy it.

You can give the gift of a booster without registering it first. Honestly, it’s up to them to register (or not.) There’s no enforcement of this rule and I have to believe that if the FCC ever gets back to some semblance of normalcy that the registration rule will probably be removed. It’s really silly and it’s estimated that fewer than 10% of people actually do it.

Why buy someone a cell booster?

Honestly there’s a good reason to buy someone else a cell booster. It’s purely selfish. You might not want to go to their house because there’s no cell service. Getting on their wi-fi is a drag even though, let’s be honest, you know where the router is and you could get on pretty easily.

Getting someone else a cell booster can come down to nothing more than you like hanging out with them, but you miss important information when you do. They may not even know a cell booster is an option and look at you, you’re giving them not only the best information but also the tools to fix the problem. Look at you, being a great friend!

How do you know what booster to buy?

Here’s where you can seem like a total genius. Get some pretty vague information like how many bars you have while you’re outside, how many bars (if any) inside, and how big the space is… roughly. Call the experts at Solid Signal and we can help you through the rest. The number is 888-233-7563. If it’s after business hours, fill out this form and someone will get back to you with a professional recommendation.

 

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.