Telecom Equipment & Device Issues

TIA represents hundreds of global companies that manufacture, supply, or vend information and communications technology (ICT) products which are directly impacted by conformity assessment policies – the procedures that provide a means of ensuring that the products, services, systems, persons, or bodies have certain required characteristics, and that these characteristics are consistent from product to product, service to service, system to system, etc.

These policies are of ever-increasing importance to not only the ICT industry, but all users that utilize ICT products, from consumers to enterprise to government. TIA addresses and advocates on consensus positions of its membership in the area of device approval through its Technical Regulatory Policy Committee (TRPC).

For example, in the United States, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) alone processes 16,000 equipment authorizations a year, an increase of 400% over the last decade. TIA believes that the FCC's equipment approval process has been an overall success and has provided increased certainty to innovators of ICT products and services, and we applaud continued efforts to improve the process. Successful components of this system include the FCC's Knowledge Database (KDB) portal and the Telecommunications Certification Body (TCB) program.

TIA's TRPC shapes its positions and advocacy based on the following principles:

• Streamlining and globally harmonizing equipment authorizations and promoting process improvement will decrease both the cost and time‐to‐market for equipment manufacturers, ultimately benefitting the end‐user with quicker access to devices at lower costs.
• Examining ways to improve governmental device approval processes towards increasing certainty and efficiencies should be a continuous process that includes proactive and open dialogue with affected stakeholders, such as the allowance of electronic labeling, reduced import restrictions, and the use of a self‐declaring certification regime.
• Governmental reliance on international standards to ensure compliance with technical requirements will maximize the widespread international availability of ICT equipment at competitive prices.

To view TIA's filings falling under this stream of advocacy, please visit our device approval filings page.