When using new wireless kit, never assume the vendor knows what they are doing, most of the time they do not know what the local laws regarding wireless equipment even are. We have some vendors ignore standards while others follow the standard so closely the kit becomes unusable.
We installed a new 900Mhz radio to a customer who was in a particular bad spot. All seem well, the customer was getting the speed over the wireless and the latency was rather good.
A few weeks after install I get a call from the customer.
ring ring
Me: G’day slazer speaking.
Cus: Hi, this is [manager] calling from [customer] we have a guy here saying the radio on our roof is interfering with [national mobile carrier] in the area.
Me: Ooook, that doesn’t sound good. Can I talk with him?
Cus: Sure. I’ll shoot the call down to reception where he is.
call transfer
Me: G’day this is Slazer, we run the kit on the roof, what is the issue?
CarrierTech: This is CarrierTech from [contracting firm] we have been sent out by [national carrier] to find out why their customers are experiencing call problems in this area.
Me: I see, is [Cus] still hanging around?
CarrierTech: Yes,
Me: Sweet, I need to have a quick word with him and we can sort this out.
Phone passed back to Cus
Me: Hi mate, Thanks for calling us. We will handle everything from here and you wont have to do anything.
Cus: Ok, sounds good, I will pass you back to CarrierTech
Phone ping pong finishes.
Me: Right mate, lets get this sorted. What are you seeing and how can we resolve it.
CarrierTech: I noticed the radio on this roof and our kit is saying it is running in the 900Mhz band. What brand and model is the radio?
Me: It is a Ubiquiti Nanobridge M900.
CarrierTech: Is the firmware up to date and you are running in the Australian country code?
Me: Yes.
CarrierTech: Ok, so it looks like it currently isn’t complying with Aussie rules because it is sitting in the middle of the 900Mhz band assigned to [national carrier].
Me: Not good, What is there band?
CarrierTech: [freq band]
Me: Yea, we are sitting in the middle of that, luckily this is a backup link so I can mess with it during business hours. Let me lock out those frequencies and reboot the unit.
few min later
Me: Ok, I have gone as far away as I can from their band, how is it looking?
CarrierTech: I will have to check from outside. Can I have a number I can call you back on?
Me: sure, [insert company number]
CarrierTech: OK, I will call back a little later.
About 20 min later he calls back.
CarrierTech: It looks like that has cleared up the problem. Where does this link go back to?
Me: [insert address from city 10Km away]
CarrierTech: sigh I spent the entire day there yesterday chasing down the same problem and narrowed it down to that street. I should of started at this end.
Me: Well, my apologies mate, I will have to get in touch with the vendor and get this fixed for the next firmware release.
CarrierTech: Yes. I am sure [National Carrier] will also push them and the ACMA about it.
Me: On that note. I assume because the problem is fixed we won’t be getting a call from them?
CarrierTech: No, if they complained to the ACMA it would be 6 months before they could do anything about it.
Me: Sounds about right for a government department, just out of curiously how many sites were affected by this?
CarrierTech: About 20 to 30 sites.
Me: wow, now I am really glad you called us first.
insert ending formalities
/End call
I let the boss know what happened and he was glad how it worked out.
Last time we had a run in with the ACMA it ended badly for them, but that is another tale for another time.
Another wonderful post to read, but once again, I’m in shock as to what the Australian frequency regulator seemingly doesn’t do. Perhaps it’s a tad unfair to compare ACMA to the American FCC – the latter well-recognized throughout the world for their (often counterfeited) certification mark – but it seems like ACMA is dropping the ball.
Ubiquiti is probably the top producer outside of China for point-to-point WiFi-based equipment, so I have to imagine that other similar Western national frequency regulators to the FCC have the same demands upon Ubiquiti, such as to submit certification test reports from an RF lab. So either ACMA doesn’t request this before approving equipment to be sold in the country, or they don’t review test result and rely on other national regulator’s approvals, and that they don’t conduct spot testing on their own.
All of those prospects are unfortunate. But I suppose if the national carrier is adjacent to the 900 MHz ISM band – I’m assuming Australia has this ISM band for unlicensed use? – that’s going to be rough no matter what.