DoT extends 4G, 5G mandatory equipment testing deadline by 1 year

Move comes as a huge reprieve for telcos, gear makers

In a major relief for telecom gear makers and telcos, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has extended the date for mandatory testing and certification of 4G and 5G products by one year to July 1, 2023, through an amended notification issued on Monday.

Telcos and equipment makers had made it clear that the earlier July 1, 2022, deadline would have jeopardised the roll-out of 5G services from the end of this year as there are not enough third party labs to test 4G and 5G products.

The DoT took the decision after talks with stakeholders who had suggested either extending the deadline or keeping it in abeyance till enough third party testing labs were available. The DoT had assured stakeholders that at least one lab would be up and running by July, but that was grossly inadequate for the huge requirement.

Even if telcos gave firm orders for equipment from July after the auction, equipment imports would have been delayed by 6-12 months.

New rules

Under the new testing and certification rules, equipment such as microwaves, radios, routers, and so on – which can be used for both 4G and 5G networks – could not be imported or sold after July 1 without first being tested by select third party labs within the country. The equipment also had to be certified by the Telecommunication Engineering Centre on safety, emission, and other technical parameters.

But as Indian labs are still not equipped to handle such testing, telcos feared that orders to buy or import network equipment would come to a standstill. In fact, from last Friday, imports of new equipment were stopped by many global vendors because the deadline was just a fortnight away.

The extension will also give breathing space for the import of only 5G equipment, which also has to go through a similar process and for which the deadline being considered was January 1, 2023. Gear makers expect that this deadline will now be shifted by a year.
 

Telcos say that while buying new products such as the crucial radios, they prefer to import them as they have the capability to power both 4G and 5G and such products (which are not only 5G) would have come under the preview of the July 1, 2022, deadline.  

The Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association (TEMA) had suggested that the mandatory testing rule was irrelevant and should be done away with. It argued that with the government’s new ‘trusted product’ policy, all telecom products procured by telcos were already covered in any case. As for any remaining items, they could easily be brought under the ambit of the Bureau of Indian Standards.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had asked for an extension of six months. Vendors wanted an extension of up to 18 months.  

The issue turned more complicated when the DoT, in consultation with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), issued an order on April 27 exempting mobile handsets, smart watches, smart cameras, and servers (among others) from the same mandatory testing and certification rules.

The companies making these items had protested that they were already being certified by the Bureau of Indian Standards on the same parameters.

Many equipment makers say that just as MeitY succeeded in winning exemption from testing for mobile devices, the same exemption should have been extended to them too by the DoT.

The COAI felt that there should be enough labs to handle at least 60 per cent of the products that will be required for deploying 4G/5G. As an executive with a global telecom vendor said: “The extension is a major relief for us as we had already stopped imports last week because our products take two to three weeks to ship to India. And that would mean crossing the July 1st deadline and having our products sent back. Now we can start imports again.”

He also pointed out that the extension would also now allow his company to give a clearer timeline for delivery of 4G/5G equipment once orders are placed.