Regulatory News dated Q2/2015

After a four months suspension, ARN-TIC, Guinea Bissau`s Type Approval agency, is now receiving requests and issuing Type Approval certificates. The Type Approval procedure remains unchanged.

Ghana's National Communication Authority (NCA) revised its guidelines in May 2015 as follows:

• A local company is now required for all type approval applications if the manufacturer does not have a branch in Ghana.
• Regarding the publication of the type approved devices on NCA website: "The Authority will maintain on its website a list of approved ECE (hereinafter referred to as "Type Approval Register") to be accessed by the general public";
• A regularly updated list of testing laboratories recognized by the Authority will be available on the Authority's website. The Authority can demand re-testing at a laboratory assigned by the Authority on the applicant's expense,
• Approved Terminal Equipment must be labeled, bearing the mark 'NCA Approved: XXX-XXXXX-XXX' (Appendix 3 of Guidelines). Electronic Marking is acceptable;
• NCA shall perform market surveillance to ensure that only type approved ECE is sold in Ghana.

SUTEL no longer accepts family approval: from now on, each model with a different color, hardware or software will require a separate Type Approval certificate.

On 2015-02-24 a Self-Labelling Programme (SLP) was launched by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and its appointed Certifying Agency, SIRIM. This will replace the conventional labeling program from 2015-06-15 onwards.

The SLP certification mark consists of:

1. logo design
2. "MCMC" (as word)
3. Common ID (CID) or certificate Holder ID (HID)

The SLP allows self-labelling by the certificate holder or manufacturer of their certified products according to related regulations (surface-marking or e-Labelling).