Brussels hosted last 11-12 June the 37th meeting of Telecommunications Conformity Assessment and Market Surveillance Committee (TCAM) and the third meeting of the TCAM Experts Group. The gathering was chaired by the European Commission (EC) and attended by nearly 60 participants representing various member states, associations of notified bodies, standardisation bodies, other relevant organisations and consumers.
The most significant topics dealt with at the meeting were:
- Review of the Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (R&TTE) Directive - some meetings have already been held at Council and European Parliament (EP) level on revision of the directive and it is hoped that the issue will be concluded during the Lithuanian presidency. The biggest controversy associated to the directive's revision is over whether or not to include pure receivers. Other more discussed issues concern the specific definition of radio equipment and the matter of the equipment registration system;
- Creation of the TCAM working group in the scope of article 6 of TCAM’s operational rules, which envisages setting up working groups to examine specific questions stemming from the directive. It will continue current activity of the TCAM experts group and debate issues associated to application of the R&TTE Directive. The working group will be composed of TCAM members and observers, along with representatives from relevant organisations such as manufacturers associations, telecom operators, standardisation bodies, associations of notified bodies, consumers and the Electronic Communications Committee (ECC);
- Interference caused by digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT) systems - some DECT telephones with European Commission (EC) marking have led to regulator intervention at the request of mobile network operators to locate and resolve interference problems caused by such devices in the 3G network. This is basically due to two situations: the first is caused by defective or very old equipment and the second by DECT devices obtained in the United States of America with operational frequencies different from those used in the European Union (EU). The current R&TTE Directive has no legal provision mentioning the useful lifespan of equipment. In such cases article 7.4 of the R&TTE Directive should be applied: "Where a Member State considers that an apparatus declared to be compliant with the provisions of this Directive causes serious damage to a network or harmful radio interference or harm to the network or its functioning, the operator may be authorised to refuse connection, to disconnect such apparatus or to withdraw it from service".
The next meeting of this Committee has been scheduled for 20-21 November 2013.
