TEC decides to keep phase II MTCTE certificates on hold

The Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC) has informed all vendors through notices that certifications issued have been put on hold till further notice due to “anomaly” found in the process of phase-II of Mandatory Testing and Certification of Telecommunication Equipment (MTCTE) regime.

Under the phase-2, telecom equipment makers were supposed to get certification for transmission terminal equipment, passive optical network family (PON) of broadband equipment and feedback devices.

India had made certification mandatory from October 1, 2020 for sale, import and use of telecom equipment in India.

TEC had last month formed eight working groups to create a roadmap for the deployment of fifth-generation or 5G in different sectors such as agriculture, fintech, transportation and education. It had also included members from Chinese vendor company Huawei, who will look at healthcare and fintech sectors.

CMAI/TEMA’s request letter to TEC, about six months back:
“ Ever since mandatory testing has been specified there have been some confusions, misgivings and non clarity on some issues. Consequently several debates/discussions area held without taking into account the full facts on the subject.
This circular from TEMA/CMAI is an attempt to give some information in that matter for us by industry/ stakeholders. We are subject to corrections and changes and shall appreciate your views/comments.
TEMA/CMAI will be glad to work with industry to address any issues that may arise in this regard through its various committees/forums as also membership of more than 100 or so Government/TEC committees. TEMA has been joining all the MATCOF and other meetings in TEC/DOT/Govt.
TEMA established in 1990 is the oldest & officially recognized association of telecom equipment manufacturers. The members include domestic/international equipment manufacturers, technology providers, test labs, research institutions, and international telecom/ICT organizations, working closely with ITU/IEEE/CTO etc. and having 54 MOU partners worldwide.

ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS (ER) & General:
The TEC is framing Essential Requirements for all the specified telecom products to be covered under Mandatory testing. Various meetings are being held in TEC in this behalf convened by the concerned DDG of the technical division. These meetings are called MATCOF. There is a DDG Telecom Certification, who is overall responsible for implementation of the mandatory testing under leadership and guidance of Sr. DDG, TEC. The procedure for mandatory testing has been defined in a document called MT&CTE. Some draft FAQs and clarifications are posted in TEC Website, which also contains draft ERs of all products and industry/ stakeholders can offer their views on all of them as per defined timelines.

Industry is encouraged to please study the draft ERs/FAQ/Clarifications and join the meetings in TEC to offer comments and views during MATCOF and other meetings.

MANDATORY TESTING NOTIFICATION:

• The Government vide notification dated 5.9.2017 (available at TEC/Govt. website as also on CMAI/TEMA websites) has mandated testing and certification of all telecom products that are used or capable of being used in Indian telecom Network licensed by the Government. The telecom products are called “telegraph” in the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, which means “appliance, instrument, material or apparatus”. The salient features of the same are:

• As of now Mandatory testing will apply from 1st October, 2018.
•  Mandatory testing applies to all telecom products imports or locally manufactured.
• As such no product will be allowed to be imported after 1.10.2018 without mandatory testing.
• The mandatory testing shall also apply to domestic manufactured equipments.
• Also no person shall sell the telecom product without mandatory testing, if that product has been prescribed mandatory testing.
• To get mandatory testing done is responsibility of OEM (domestic or foreign) and person importing the specified telecom product.
• It is also responsibility of telecom operator/licensee of DOT to see that mandatory certified equipments are used.
• And if operator finds that any uncertified equipment is used by user, he shall ensure to remove it. If not removed by user, the operator shall withdraw the services within seven days.
• The penal consequences for violations include seizure, destruction and action as per licence conditions.
• There is exemption for equipments used for R&D, demonstration purposes, sample for mandatory testing, personal use, including personally accompanied equipments for personal use. There would be restrictions on number of equipments. The Govt. is also authorised for exemption for any other equipments, if so decided.
• The telecom test instruments are also exempted from mandatory tastings.

MANDATORY TESTING PROCEDURE:

The procedure for Mandatory Testing & Certification of Telecom Equipment has been given by TEC and is called MT&CTE. The relevant document is available at TEC/Govt websites and also on CMAI/TEMA websites. The salient features of the same are:

• The testing and certification will be done as per Essential Requirements (ER) being formed by TEC.
• As per clause 3.4 of MT&CTE, the quality and reliability/performance of equipment is not part of ER.
• There is no provision for optional test. Either there is test or no test.
•  Prime focus is on security/safety.
• The test results shall be uploaded by the TEC recognized labs on TEC portal directly. 

OTHER GENERAL INFORMATION WITH REGARD TO MANDATORY TESTING

• The equipment/model number is to be tested and certified and not the system/series. However, The series are also defined in TEC as below: You may like to offer your comments if any:
• Where equipments with different model numbers are not substantially different from each other in respect of communication modules/ interface cards, all such models of the equipments may be considered belonging to the same family. In such case, model numbers of all these equipments, up to a maximum of ten, may be indicated in the certification application, and only one of the models, with higher configuration may be presented for testing. The certificate issued for the tested model will include other model numbers covered by the certificate.
• There are some equipments, which are modular in nature, and OEMs may assign different model numbers to different configuration of equipments by using different combinations of modules, built on the same chassis/ enclosure. In this case, the model with fully populated modules can be offered for testing and model numbers of equipments with lower configuration may be mentioned in the certification application.
• In case after issue of certificate, wherein model numbers of some models is indicted, another model not included in original certificate needs certification, it will be treated as a fresh case of certification.
  • In case of any new product/upgraded model, the supplier will have to fill up on the portal fort a certificate and it for TEC to decide whether new tests are to be conducted or not. The lab will not be given authority to decide this.

• The procedure does not have any provision of self certificate given for any test.
• The procedure does not contemplate issue of any TSTP ie. Test system and test procedures. Hence adequate care need to be taken by industry while giving comments on ERs.
• With regard to spares, the TEC FAQ provides that the company shall upload the Bill of Material (BOM) of the equipment along with the certification application. The modules/ spares as included in the BOM shall be indicated in the Certificate and shall not be required to be certified separately, if the equipment containing these cards/ modules
• For labelling the provisions exist in MTCTE as also the FAWQ envisages as below:

The Equipment labelling in case of certified equipment shall contain OEM’s name, Equipment’s trade name, model name, serial number and certification label and shall be marked/ affixed by the OEM/ importers/ dealer on all the equipments at a prominent place. In case of difficulty in affixing the certification details on each equipment, details of the certification label may be printed on the packaging of the product, but the logo of TEC shall be necessarily marked/ affixed at a prominent place on the body of the equipment. In addition, QR code would also be printed on the packaging of the product. QR code would include all the critical details of the certificate which can be accessed by user also.

TEC is in discussions with Customs to streamline the procedure/systems. You may like to submit any specific issues/difficulties, so that they are addressed.

• The details about surveillance are also in discussions within TEC separately and you may like to offer any suggestions for considerations.
• Validity of mandatory certificate is five years from date of issue.

SCS- SIMPLIFIED CERTIFICATION SCHEME and GCS- GENERAL CERTIFICATION SCHEME
There are two distinct types of certification schemes SCS and GCS.

• SCS is applicable for 20 equipments in Table I, which includes equipments like POS, CLIP Phone, Cordless phone, KTS, EPBT, 2 line feature phone, V.92 Modem, pay phones etc. Here the testing has been done by a designated lab. The date of lab test should not be more than 6 months old. For certification to be applied on TEC portal on line. Test wise compliance sheet along with Self declaration of Conformity ( SDoC) is to be submitted.  Normally certificate would be issued on the basis of SDoC within 15 days from date of application of registration.
•  GCS is applicable for 28 equipments in Table II, which includes like ADSL, Routers, ATM Access equipments, IM Media gateway, LAN Switch, SI terminals, Radio Modems etc. Here the applicant has to apply on line to TEC portal. After payment of fees, the equipment has to be got tested. The test results would be directly uploaded by test lab on TEC portal. The test reports shall be evaluated by TEC and certificate issued normally within 4-8 weeks of date of submission of complete test results.”

CT Bureau