The Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2017, provides that every telecom equipment must undergo mandatory testing and certification prior to sale, import or use in India. This is regulated through a scheme called Mandatory Testing and Certification of Telecom Equipment (MTCTE). MTCTE covers 55 types of telecom products along with associated variants. Testing is carried out to check conformance with essential requirements of the equipment, by labs designated by Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC). Certificates are issued by TEC based on the test reports.
The much-awaited notification for Phase-III & Phase-IV has been released covering almost all kinds of telecom products.
The objectives of the MTCTE are:
- No telecom equipment degrades the performance of any existing network to which it is connected
- Safety of end-users
- Protection of users and public by ensuring that radiofrequency emissions from equipment do not exceed prescribed standards
- Compliance of telecom equipment with relevant national and international regulatory standards and requirements.
There are two types of certification schemes
- General Certification Scheme (GCS): Under this scheme, the applicant shall be required to submit test wise compliance (summary sheet provided with the test report) along with the test reports itself, in accordance with the parameters included in the Essential Requirements (ERs), from any designated Conformity Assessment Bodies (CAB) or recognized CAB of Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) partner country. The test results shall be evaluated for compliance against respective ERs.
- Simplified Certification Scheme (SCS): Under this scheme, the applicant must test the product in accordance with the Essential Requirements and submit a test wise compliance sheet along with a Self-Declaration of Conformity (SDoC), in accordance with the parameters included in the ERs. All other rules/procedures that apply under the GCS shall apply in case of SCS, with the exception of the test reports, which are not required to be submitted by the applicant or evaluated by TEC. TEC, however, reserves the right to request a copy of the test report from the applicant to be submitted.
The Essential Requirements describe the technical regulations prescribed under this framework which include:
- Safety
- Electromagnetic interference (EMI)/Electromagnetic Compatibility (EMC)
- Technical requirements (including wireless / radio frequency (RF))
- Security: To be notified by Department of Telecommunication (DoT)
- Other requirements: To be notified by DoT
Products covered by TEC/MTCTE include:
- 2 wire-telephone equipment
- G3 fax machine
- Modem
- Cordless telephone
- Private Automatic Branch Exchange (PABX)
- Integrated services digital network (ISDN) Customer-premises equipment (CPE)
- Transmission Terminal Equipment
- Passive Optical Network (PON) family of broadband equipment
- Feedback device
- Base station for cellular network
- Repeater for cellular network
- Compact cellular network
- Smart camera
- Smart watch
- Smart electricity meter
- Tracking device (with Embedded Signal Interface Module (SIM))
- Internet of Things (IoT) Gateway
- End-point device for environmental monitoring
- Equipment operating in 2.4 & 5Ghz band
- Transmission terminal equipment
- Optical fiber (single mode)
- Satellite communication equipment
- Radio broadcast receiver
- Mobile radio trunk system
- High Frequency (HF) radio
- VHF/UHF radio system equipment
- PTP/PMP (Point-to-Point/Point-to-Multipoint) microwave fixed radio system
- IP security equipment
- Router
- LAN (Local Area Network) switch
- Precision time control Grandmaster equipment
- IP multimedia conferencing equipment
- Mobile Management Entity
- POS (Point of Sale)
- Conferencing equipment
- Signaling Gateway
- Media Gateway
- Softswitch
- Digital Subscriber Line equipment
- Session border controller
- Base station controller
- Mobile switching centre
- Equipment identity register
- Subscriber identity module
- OTA (Over-The Air) platform & device manager platform
- Home location register
- Serving GPRS (General Packet Radio Service (mobile data standard on the 2G and 3G cellular communication networks)) support node
- Serving gateway
- Mobile management entity
- Short message service centre
- Cell broadcast centre
- Service control point
- Operation maintenance centre
- Gateway mobile location centre
- Service mobile location centre
India - Notification on Mandatory Testing and Certification of Telecommunication Systems (MTCTE)–Phase V
India - Amendment Notification - Extension of mandatory certification date for 05 products (ERs) notified under Phase-III, IV & V of MTCTE
