05.12.2016

 

The National Authority for Management and Regulation in Communications of Romania (ANCOM) warns that the usage of non-conforming electronic equipment, without the CE marking, is illegal and may affect the operation of electronic communications services, especially of mobile telephony ones. Following radio spectrum monitoring and control campaigns, ANCOM’s technical teams found that most of such harmful interference cases are due to the usage of cordless fixed telephone terminals (DECT 6.0), which lack the CE marking.

What is non-conforming equipment?

Private use electronic equipment such as wireless microphones and telephones or LED lighting appliances function based on radio waves, in licence-exempt frequency bands, only in compliance with certain conformity rules. A piece of electronic equipment is deemed non-conforming when it fails to meet a set of essential requirements, such as – for example – protection of the users’ health and safety or protection regarding electromagnetic compatibility and ensuring the efficient use of the radio spectrum.

When such a non-conforming device is put in operation on the territory of Romania, it affects the functioning of mobile telephony equipment: the number of users able to use the mobile telephony or internet services in the respective area is significantly reduced, sometimes it is impossible to make a call, while calls in progress are interrupted.

Why are DECT 6.0 fixed telephones non-conforming equipment?

DECT 6.0 fixed telephone sets purchased from outside the European Union, especially from the USA, are among the types of equipment the most frequently found to produce harmful interference. Unlike the European DECT standard, a universally used standard for cordless communications over short distances with frequency allocations in the 1880-1900 MHz range, the DECT 6.0 standard is used only in the USA, Canada and regions of Asia, where it is allocated a different frequency band, i.e. 1920-1930 MHz. In Romania, this band is used for operating mobile communications networks.

Therefore, at present, anybody using within the EU such telephone models that are not conforming to the European DECT standard produces harmful interferences on other radiocommunication services that legally operate in the respective frequency band. Moreover, the most important harmful interferences are produced on the 3G frequency bands allocated at the European level, so the use of DECT 6.0 telephones is incompatible with the functioning of 3G mobile telephony services.

N.B.

Every time you buy an electronic appliance (DECT cordless telephone sets, parental audio/video surveillance devices, wireless microphones, remote controlled toys, walkie-talkie stations, LED lighting appliances etc.), you should check the product conformity with the European rules, certified by the presence of the CE marking, as well as by means of the technical details specified in the product manual and instructions. You should do this especially when a product has been purchased from a market other than the European one.

Users owning such equipment should turn it off immediately.

Applicable sanctions

Where the use of non-conforming equipment that causes harmful interference does not stop, the Authority may enforce contravention fines amounting from RON 500 to RON 5,000, according to the Government Decision no. 740/2016, which entered into force on 22 November 2016. Further information on non-conforming electronic and electric home appliances, the CE marking and the obligations incumbent on manufacturers, distributors and consumers are available on the Authority’s website.