UL, an independent global safety science company announced that the Telecommunications Engineering Centre (TEC), a nodal agency of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, has designated UL as a Conformity Assessment Body (CAB). With this recognition, UL can enable players in the telecom sector to test to the Essential Requirements (ER) for certification by TEC. Telecom equipment manufacturers, importers and dealers can now submit their products at the UL’s Centres of Excellence in Gurugram and Bengaluru for testing and gain the certification from TEC.
UL’s designation as CAB comes ahead of Mandatory Testing and Certification of Telecom Equipment (MTCTE) procedure that will be enforced from October this year. According to the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2017, prior to sale, import of use in India, every telecom equipment must undergo mandatory testing by accredited laboratories in India designated by the TEC. The TEC will then award the certificate, based on the test reports issued by these laboratories. With a validity of five years, the TEC certification mark should be obtained only once for one type of equipment.
Commenting on the accreditation, Mr. Suresh Sugavanam, Vice President and Managing Director for South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa at UL, said, “The telecom sector in India has undergone dramatic changes over the past decade. While foreign direct investment in the sector has nearly doubled in the last five years, India’s smartphone segment is one of the fastest growing in the world, attracting top global players. The high demand for telecom products, increasing technology disruption and proliferation in the industry is driving the need for regulation in India. It is heartening that the TEC has anticipated the risks that come with development and has created an all-encompassing certification scheme to address the safety, performance and security concerns of telecom products, services and networks.”
The technical regulations prescribed by TEC will govern an array of telecom products from mobile handsets to Wi-Fi routers. The specifications outline testing for electrical and fire safety, performance and technical parameters like Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), Radio Frequency (RF), Security Requirements, Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC).
