For years manufacturers who are required to use the FCC’s Certification process for product EMC approvals have had the choice of using a lab that is FCC Listed or a lab that is an FCC Recognized Accredited Test Laboratory.
FCC Listed labs may be located anywhere in the world. FCC Recognized Accredited labs must be located in a country that has a mutual recognition agreement with the FCC. This means that manufacturers have had a fair degree of flexibility in their choice of labs.
This changes on July 13, 2016. After this date only FCC Recognized Accredited test labs may be used for testing for the Certification approval process.
What does this mean for a manufacturer? If the manufacturer has been using a test lab that is not a Recognized Accredited lab they will have to change laboratories. FCC Recognized Accredited Testing Laboratories are presently located in the following countries or groups of countries:
United States
Canada
EU
Japan
Taiwan
South Korea
Australia
Hong Kong
Singapore
Israel
If a laboratory is physically located in a country not on this list it is not an FCC Recognized Accredited Test Laboratory and may not be used for testing for the Certification approval process after July 13, 2016.
What does this mean for test labs? It the lab is not physically located in one of the counties listed above it is out of the testing business for the FCC’s Certification process as of July 13, 2016. Note that this is already the case for the FCC’s Declaration of Conformity process and has been the case since that process was introduced in the 1990s. These labs will only be able to test products subject to the FCC’s Verification process as of this date.
If you need more information, please feel free to contact me.