Rural mobile phone reception is being weakened by a 66pc rise in illegal roof aerials, mobile boosters and other unlicensed equipment, the telecoms regulator has warned.
Some interference is even threatening emergency services such as fire services, ComReg says in a new report.
The watchdog has released figures about the extent of radio interference in day-to-day life.
It says unlicensed ‘mobile boosters’, which typically work through an aerial on a house roof, have become a scourge for rural mobile networks and contribute to blackspots.
“Over 60pc of interference to mobile networks in the State is caused by these devices,” the watchdog said in its report.
“Typically, there is greater use of these amplifiers in rural areas and locating them often requires many hours of direction finding and travel to locate and remove them.”
Souped-up external TV antennae in rural areas are also a problem, the regulator said.
“It is not uncommon for an external TV antenna to be erected with some form of signal amplifier to ensure reception of a strong signal,” the report said.
“A single amplifier can interfere with multiple mobile base stations.”
Such amplifiers interfere with the commonly-used mobile phone spectrum, which is supposed to be strictly controlled to ensure the availability of a signal.
But the combination of thousands of one-off rural houses and weak rural mobile and broadband reception has resulted in a glut of such illegal equipment being bought and used in rural areas.
ComReg said 283 illegal mobile phone boosters, wi-fi repeaters, GPS trackers, radar detectors and signal jammers were seized by customs authorities from postal centres in the last 12 months. This is a 66pc increase over the previous year.
The regulator received seven complaints in the last year of interference to safety-of-life services, including air traffic control, gardaí and the Dublin Fire Brigade. This, ComReg says, was through interference to two-way radio and telemetry systems relied on by such critical emergency and transport services.
In an effort to improve matters, the regulator recently legalised mobile phone ‘repeaters’ which have set frequencies and ‘intelligent’ systems which don’t interfere with other networks.
These operate in a similar way to mobile phone ‘boosters’, although they sometimes cost more and are available from fewer outlets.
The telecoms watchdog’s warning comes as mobile operators here prepare to launch 5G upgrades to their networks – but rural areas still suffer from large blackspots.
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