September 8, 2016
On June 12, 2016, a one-year transition period began for manufacturers of radio equipment to update their European Union compliance files from conformity with the R&TTE Directive to the new Radio Equipment Directive (RED). After June 13, 2017, all radio transmitters and receivers will need to comply with the RED. But before you rush into compliance with the RED you may want to wait a while and perhaps until after January 2017 to do so.
As of August 8, 2016, only four harmonized standards have been published in the Official Journal for the new Radio Equipment Directive, and compliance by self-declaration to the RED is only allowed if a harmonized standard, i.e. one is published in the Official Journal (OJ), is applied in full. Otherwise, a radio device manufacturer has to apply alternate conformity assessment processes such as type approval by a notified body. But this approach may be problematic too since there are only a few notified bodies that have been officially recognized to date.
A full suite of harmonized standards was planned to be published in the RED OJ by the start of the transition date in June 2016. But because there are several significant updates to standards the process to reach a consensus on regulations for new wireless technology has taken much longer than anticipated. The European Commission has announced that it is planning to release RED OJ updates on a more regular basis, but it’s likely we will not see an OJ that includes the more common standards such as EN 300 328, EN 300 220, or EN 301 489 until the end of 2016.
That means that manufacturers of products that are currently assessed under the R&TTE Directive will need to maintain their existing compliance file a bit longer and perhaps up to June 2017. Manufacturers of new transmitter equipment will need to comply with the R&TTE if there is not an applicable standard published in the OJ for the RED.
Elite will keep you posted on the latest updates as we hear of them. Watch for our upcoming newsletters.
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