U.S Federal Communication Commission Warns Bitcoin Miners to Desist from Interfering with Local Internet Connections

It appears the bitcoin craze will not go away anytime soon. Telecommunications giants T-Mobile complained to the FCC that the activity of some bitcoin miners was causing dangerous interference with its broadband internet and now the Federal Communication Commission has passed its verdict.

Dangerous Interference

T-Mobile had informed the telecommunications regulatory body of interference to its 700 MegaHertz LTE network in Brooklyn, New York. The company claimed that radio emissions emanating from a house in the area carrying out bitcoin mining operations, was responsible for the disturbance to its broadband network.

According to Reuters, after the FCC had thoroughly investigated the matter, it said the culprit was “generating spurious emissions on frequencies assigned to T-Mobile’s broadband network and causing harmful interference.”

A Final Warning

The FCC’s enforcement bureau declared in a letter on February 15 that failure to desist from using the “Antminer s5 Bitcoin Miner” and other bitcoin mining equipment that interfere with other people’s networks, would be treated as a violation of the federal law.

Defaulters will be liable to pay fines, face criminal prosecution and that’s not all; their mining equipment could also be seized.

Some parts of the letter read:

“You are hereby notified, pursuant to Section 15.5(c) of the commission’s rules, 47 CFR 15.5(c) that the Antminer s5 Bitcoin Miner in use at your residence is causing harmful interference to T-Mobile’s operation in Brooklyn, New York. Continued operation of this device that causes harmful interference after your receipt of this warning constitutes a violation of the Federal laws cited above and could subject the operator to severe penalties, including, but not limited to, substantial monetary fines, in rem arrest action to seize the offending radio.”

The FCC has given the miner a 20-day ultimatum to respond to the letter.

The FCC commissioner, Jessica Rosenworcel in a tweet stated that:

“Okay. This @FCC letter has it all: #bitcoin mining, computing power needed for #blockchain computation and #wireless #broadband interference. It all seems so very 2018.”

T-Mobile has been going through a lot lately. On February 8, BTCManager reported that a Washington resident filed a lawsuit against the company for allowing hackers to steal his cryptocurrencies, claimed to be due to the poor security level of their network.

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