The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said it is still evaluating how to regulate low-power devices that use radio frequencies to transmit signals if manufacturers are no longer required to certify product specifications prior to importation into Taiwan.
There are still many issues that need to be resolved before the waiver can be implimented, the commission said after a meeting.
The decision to continue the review comes approximately one year after the commission said it wanted to waive the certification requirement for manufacturers of keyboards, headsets and selfie remotes that use Bluetooth technology, as well as other products that utilize radio frequencies, because it was impossible to track down every single illegally imported product and penalize all their importers.
Instead of asking importers to have all such devices certified prior to entry into Taiwan, the commission wants to just punish manufacturers if their devices are found to cause interference.
Commission staffers presented several reports on the issue before the commissioners deliberated and decided to extend their review.
Spokesperson Yu Hsiao-cheng (虞孝成) said there were still several issues that the commissioners need to consider.
“The department [studying the viability of a waiver] said that none of the devices have been found to cause interference because of the certification requirement, but waiving the requirement would only lead to illegal products entering the market, which is a valid point,” Yu said, adding that some commissioners thought the concern was overrated.
Agencies charged with certifying the specifications of such devices had indicated that eliminating the requirement would affect their businesses, but the commission said it was concerned about the devices causing interference, not the viability of certification agencies if a waiver program was introduced, he said
Concerns had also been raised that a waiver would affect mutual recognition agreements Taiwan had with other nations that saved local manufacturers the trouble of certifying their products again when selling overseas, he said.
Others have said that the certification requirement is only a small part of such agreements and a waiver would not impact the overall pacts, he said.
“We want to gather more evidence on such issues to avoid unexpected interference caused by these devices if the waiver is implemented,” he said.
In other developments, the commission has released more radio frequencies for use by low-power devices, such as wireless microphones and headsets, Wi-Fi networks, collision avoidance radar and remote-controlled cars.
These frequencies have been opened by other nations to low-power radio frequency devices, he said.
In addition, wireless microphone users used to be able to use the frequency between 788 and 803 megahertz, but rights to that bandwidth have been acquired by the Taiwan Mobile, so the range will be off limits to wireless microphone users once the telecom carrier starts using it.
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