U.S. Spectrum Increase for 5G

December 12th, 2019 -

The FCC announces it is moving toward facilitating shared use in the 3.1 to 3.55 GHz band in pursuit of the proposed reforms within last year's MOBILE NOW act passed by Congress. The reforms seek to boost development of next generation broadband (5G Wireless).

Press release and full details available at:

https://www.fcc.gov/document/fcc-considers-facilitating-shared-use-31-355-ghz-band

5 GHz Wi-Fi Interference, FCC Issues Warning

The FCC Issued a public notice targeted at operators, manufacturers and marketers of wireless transmitters operating in the 5.25 GHz to 5.35 GHz and 5.47 GHz to 5.725 GHz band, commonly referred to as Unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (UNII) devices. The most common consumer/commercial wireless product operating in these bands being 5 GHz Wi-Fi devices.

This FCC enforcement advisory explains what rules apply, what the U-NII operator should do to comply, and what manufacturers and retailers must do to comply. Retailers include both on-line (e.g. Amazon) and brick-and-mortar locations.

The advisory warns of significant penalties, not limited to substantial monetary fines, for operators, manufacturers and retailers for failure to comply with the Title 47, Part 15 rules.

The FCC advisory casts a large net and it squarely places the responsibility for compliance on the shoulders of not only the user and the manufacturer but also, as we are seeing more and more from the FCC, including online retailers of such devices.

Interference from non-compliant devices to Doppler weather radar stations, used by aviation to detect wind shear and other weather-related dangers, is potentially life threatening.

REF: FCC Public Notice DA 19-807

Related:

FCC TAKES ACTION AGAINST COMPANIES THAT INTERFERED WITH FAA WEATHER RADAR IN PUERTO RICO

Market Surveillance and Compliance of Products

New EU Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on Market surveillance and product compliance.

Original news posted by NIST. As mentioned in the NIST TEL MRA team release

"The new regulations will impact most manufacturers/economic operators placing products on the market in the EU."

Given that most readers of my posts will be impacted I have copied the release for re-circulation here.

ORIGINAL NIST TEL MRA MEMORANDUM ;

Dear Colleagues:

The new Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on market surveillance and compliance of products was published in the OJEU on June 25, 2019.

Important Dates:

• Enters into force on July 16, 2019 (20 days after publication in the OJEU)
• Clauses regarding the establishment of the “Network” and funding apply as of January 1, 2021
• Remaining clauses apply as of July 16, 2021

The new regulations will impact most manufacturers/economic operators placing products on the market in the EU.  

Key Provisions

• Establishes a new Union Product Compliance Network (Article 29) (referred to as the “Network”) that will coordinate Member States enforcement authorities and market surveillance authorities – Article 29
• Gives the Commission the ability to designate Union Testing Facilities of its own or in a Member State - for testing of products – (48) and Article 21
• Requires Member States to establish a single market surveillance liaison office – Article 10 (3)
• Requires Member States to ensure that their market surveillance authorities have the right resources and powers
• Allows Member States to give their market surveillance authorities power to require access to embedded software, reverse engineer products (and other powers) – Article 14 (4a and 4j)
• Brings the “fulfillment service providers” into the list of economic operators – Article 3 (11)
• For some products, requires that there be an economic operator established in the EU – this can be the manufacturer, the importer, an authorized rep, or the fulfilment service provider  – See Article 4  
• In such cases,  specific information must to be included on or with the product, including the contact details of the economic operator – Article 4 (4)
• This does apply for products covered under the RED and EMCD  – Article 4 (5)
• Requires that “information society service providers” cooperate with market surveillance authorities for products being sold on-line - Article 7 (2)
• Requires that the MS authorities take account of test reports or certificates issued by CABS accredited in accordance with 765/2008  as part of “checks”: - Article 11 (5)
• Requires that Member States give economic operators at least 10 working days to be heard before a measure is taken if possible  – Article 18 (3)
• Gives Commission ability to approve of specific pre-export control systems established by third countries if there is “official” verification done by the third country – Article 35 (3) and (7)

See the attached document (or the link above) for further details. 

In the News  

• https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2019/06/14/eu-adopts-regulation-to-keep-unsafe-products-off-the-market/  [June 14, 2019]
• https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=44713a72-3897-4480-86dc-05d57d07563c [June 29, 2019]

Thank you.

Kind regards,

The NIST TEL MRA Team

mra@nist.gov

Electronic Device Retailers FCC Issues Warning

February 15, 2019, the Federal Communication Commission issued an enforcement advisory warning electronic device retailers, yes, those selling devices not just making them, of potential fines if devices are in violation of the applicable FCC authorization requirements. Fines could total more than $150,000 per violation.

This is of significant importance as many retailers and distributors assume that the device manufacturer shoulders the burden for regulatory compliance, and accepts that if a product manufacturer claims compliance then that is all that is required, often retailers and distributors are unaware of the authorization requirements but this advisory opens the door for retailers and distributors to face penalties if the products are not in compliance with the required FCC authorization methods found under part 15 of Title 47 Code of Federal Regulations.

Specifically, this advisory is addressing those products that fall under the "Suppliers Declaration of Conformity" or SDoC authorization rules. A non-exhaustive list of examples of the types of products covered can be found in C.F.R. 47 §15.101(a) and §18.203.

For a basic guide and to understand what the SDoC authorization encompasses, please visit https://celectronics.com/training/learning/authorization/FCC-SDoC-Guide.html

REF:
https://docs.fcc.gov/public/attachments/DA-19-91A1.pdf