Administration Regulations of Regulatory Certification Body for Controlled Telecommunications Radio-Frequency Devices

16 Articles adopted and promulgated in full by Directorate General of Telecommunications, Ministry of Transportation and Communications on November 17, 2003. Ref.: Order Dian-Xin-Gong-Zi No. 09205098750.

16 Articles amended and promulgated on July 19, 2007. Ref.: Order Tong-Chuan-Fa-Zi No. 09605100651.

16 Articles amended and promulgated on June 7, 2017 by National Communications Commission. Ref.: Tong-Chuan-Zi-Yuan-Zi No. 10643012050.

Article 1 The regulations are stipulated pursuant to Paragraph 3 of Article 50 of the Telecommunications Act.

Article 2 National Communications Commission (hereinafter referred to as the “NCC”) may commission regulatory certification body (hereinafter referred to as the “RCB”) to certify controlled telecommunications radio-frequency devices (hereinafter referred to as CTRFD).

The CTRFD test categories, certification type and certification items mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be announced by NCC.

The RCB shall sign the CTRFD compliance approval commission contract (hereinafter referred to as the “commission contract”) with NCC, and receive the CTRFD accreditation certificate issued by NCC (hereinafter referred to as the “accreditation certificate”) in order to approve the compliance of CTRFD.

The RCB accreditation certificate mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall provide the following information:

1. Certificate number.
2. Name of RCB.
3. Address of RCB.
4. Name of Test Body.
5. Address of Test Body.
6. Validity.
7. Test categories, certification types and certification items.

Article 3 The entity that applies for becoming a RCB (hereinafter referred to as the “Applicant”) shall comply with the following requirements:

1. Domestic legal entity or institution established by law.
2. Not engaged in the import, design, manufacturing or trading of certification items related to announced CTRFD as prescribed in the preceding Article.
3. Establishment of the test body as prescribed in Compliance Approval Regulations on Controlled Telecommunications Radio-Frequency Devices (hereinafter referred to as the Compliance Approval Regulations)
4. Equipped with at least two professional and dedicated certification personnel.

The personnel mentioned in Subparagraph 4 of the preceding paragraph shall possess a bachelor above degree majored in telecommunications engineering, electronic engineering, electrical engineering or other relevant fields from a domestic or foreign public or private college or university recognized by the Ministry of Education; or have at least one year of testing work experience in a Test Body and have knowledge and expertise in telecommunications technology. The personnel shall also have a good understanding of government regulations and technical specifications, and must not work concurrently in another Test Body for testing relevant work.

Article 4 The applicant shall submit the following documents to NCC:

1. Application form for CTRFD RCB.
2. Photocopy of establishment certificate.
3. Photocopy of the accreditation certificate of Test Body.
4. Information and documents that certify the certification personnel’s qualifications.
5. Organizational structure and functional descriptions of the applicant’s certification department.
6. Quality manual of the applicant’s certification department.
7. List of quality documents of the applicant’s certification department.
8. Operating procedures for the compliance approval of CTRFD (according to test categories, certification types and certification items).
9. Other documents designated by NCC.

Where the documents mentioned in the preceding paragraph are incomplete or with incomplete descriptions, the applicant shall make corrections within the period prescribed by NCC; those who fail to make corrections or the corrections remain incomplete, the application will be rejected.

The prescribed period mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall not exceed one month.

Article 5 Where documents submitted by the applicant are approved, NCC will proceed to an on-site assessment with criteria as follows:

1. The product certification system complies with CNS 17065 or ISO/IEC 17065.
2. Other CTRFD relevant technical specifications announced by NCC or specified in Chinese National Standards.
3. Other requirements specified by NCC.

Applicants who have passed the said assessment shall sign the commission contract with NCC and acquire the accreditation certificate.

Regarding applicants who fail to be in compliance with criteria as specified in Paragraph 1, NCC shall notify them of it with reasons specified and request the applicant to make corrections within a prescribed deadline. The said applicants shall make corrections within a prescribed deadline and submit improvement reports; if not, the rejection will be rejected.

The prescribed period mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall not exceed three months.

Article 6 RBC shall treat all CTRFD compliance approval applications (hereinafter referred to as the “compliance approval applications”) equally and shall not reject them without a justifiable reason.

RCB shall handle compliance approval applications in the name of the RCB.

Article 7 RCB and its certification personnel must not offer consultations to its applicants or alter any technical characteristics of CTRFD.

Article 8 RCB that adds or removes a test category, certification type and certification item of CTRFD compliance approval shall submit the application and apply for the reissuance of commission contract and accreditation certificate in accordance with provisions of Article 4 to Article 6. The validity of the reissued commission contract and accreditation certificate shall be identical with the original ones.

Any change to descriptions of accreditation certificate, except for the addition or removal of test category, certification type and certification item mentioned in the preceding paragraph, shall be reported to NCC for resistance within 15 days after the change; the original accreditation certificate shall be attached when reporting the change. The validity of the reissued accreditation certificate shall be the same as the original one.

Where there is any vacancy of or addition to the RCB’s professional and dedicated certification personnel, it is a must to submit the information of relevant personnel to NCC within 15 days after the said change for its future reference.

Where the RCB violates provisions of Subparagraph 4 of Paragraph 1 of Article 3 due to the vacancy of certification personnel, NCC may order the RCB to suspend certification relevant works. RCB shall, after the employment of certification personnel as prescribed, submit the profile of certification personnel to NCC for approval before conducting relevant certification works.

Where NCC or a domestic accreditation body recognized by NCC (hereinafter referred to as the Accreditation Body) confirms that RCB’s Test Body shall suspend certification works, the RCB shall suspend relevant activities and notify NCC of it within 10 days after the suspension for its future reference. Where NCC or the Accreditation Body confirms the said said Test Body is eligible to conduct certification works, the RCB shall report it to NCC and receive its approval for conducting relevant works.

Article 9 RCB shall conduct compliance approval applications and issue, reissue, renew, revoke or abolish compliance approval certificate according to provisions related to Compliance Approval Regulations. It shall also send compliance approval relevant information to the location designated by NCC within 7 days upon completion of the applications. However, where the appearance needs to remain confidential, the RCB may send the photos before the public display or trading within or outside the country.

The period of the confidentiality mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be one year at maximum; whenever necessary, an extension may be applied.

Article 10 Where the RCB samples CTRFD according to provisions related to Compliance Approval Regulations, it shall sample at least one CTRFD per year and the number of sampled CTRFD must be over 5 percent of CTRFD certified by the RCB. Whenever necessary, NCC may instruct the RCB to sample specific CTRFD.

When conducts the sampling mentioned in the preceding paragraph, the RCB shall sample at least one CTRFD that has been certified by other RCB within two years and the sampling method shall comply with the principle of fairness and proportion.

For each sampling, the RCB shall make a sampling report and submit it to NCC within two months. The RCB may apply for an extension in writing, with reasons specified, 14 days prior to the prescribed deadline. The extension may be made to two months at maximum; however, it shall be limited to once only.

Article 11 NCC may dispatch personnel to the RCB for irregular inspections and the RCB must not reject it.

Article 12 The period of commission contract is three years at maximum.

RCB that desires to continue the certification work after the expiry of contract shall, within two months starting from three months prior to the expiry, submit the application to NCC with the following documents:

1. Application form for CTRFD RCB.
2. Photocopy of the accreditation certificate of Test Body
3. List of certification personnel.
4. Photocopy of the accreditation certificate that indicates the compliance of product certification system with CNS 17065 or ISO/IEC 17065
5. Other requirements specified by NCC.

Where the documents mentioned in the preceding paragraph are incomplete or with incomplete descriptions, the application will be rejected.

Applicant whose qualifications are confirmed by NCC shall sign the commission contract with NCC and receive the accreditation certificate.

The period of the commission contract mentioned in the preceding paragraph shall be calculated from the next day after the expiry of the original commission contract.

Where the RCB fails to sign the commission contract with NCC and receive the accreditation certificate before the expiry of commission contract will be apply for in accordance to provision of Article 4 to 6.

NCC shall notify the RCB not to accept compliance approval applications one month prior to the expiry of commission contract. The RCB shall complete all accepted applications within one month upon receipt of the notification. However, RCB that has applied for continuing the certification work one month prior to the contract expiry is not limited to this term.

Article 13 Where the RCB is in any of the following circumstances, NCC may terminate the commission contract, order the RCB to return its accreditation certificate, and write off the accreditation certificate:

1. Violation with the Telecommunications Act, Administrative Procedure Act, Compliance Approval Regulations or the Regulations.
2. The RCB has treated CTRFD compliance approval applications unfairly or rejected any of the applications without a justifiable reason.
3. The RCB issues a false or untrue compliance approval certificate.

Where the RCB is in any of the following circumstances, NCC may order it to make corrections within a prescribed deadline; where the RCB fails to do so, NCC may terminate the commission contract, order the RCB to return the accreditation certificate and write off the accreditation certificate:

1. Violation of provisions of paragraph 1 of Article 3.
2. Violation of Article 7 to Article 10, or Paragraph 1 of Article 15.
3. The RCB goes beyond the scope of authorization mentioned in the commission contract, or has been idle in conduct certification works.
4. The RCB rejects NCC’s irregular inspections without a justifiable reason.

Article 14 Where NCC terminates the commission contract, the RCB shall pass all unfinished applications to NCC designated RCB.

The RCB shall transfer all and complete information of compliance approval applications to NCC within 7 days after the commission contract is terminated.

Provisions of the preceding two paragraphs shall also be applied to RCBs that do not continue the certification work after the expiry of commission contract.

The RCB that has its commission contract terminated by NCC must not reapply for being a RCB within one year upon the expiry of the commission contract.

Article 15 When accepting a compliance approval application, the RCB shall issue the payment receipt according to the charging standards set by NCC and give it to the applicant.

NCC will pay the commission fee to RCB according to the commission contract.

The Regulations shall take effect upon the date of promulgation.