TABLE OF CONTENTS The R&TTED is given a separate chapter in this book because of the proliferation of all types of product which incorporate wireless or telecom connectivity. As soon as any product includes a wired or wireless modem or a short-range receiver or transmitter, no matter how low its power, it becomes a radio or telecom device and the EMCD ceases to apply, to be replaced by the provisions and conformity assessment procedures of the R&TTED. Of course, for conventional radio equipment this is easy enough to understand, but many manufacturers who have never before had anything to do with radio are taken aback when they learn just how wide the scope of this Directive is.
The Radio & Telecommunications Terminal Equipment Directive (99/5/EC) [187] went into effect on 8th April 2000, with a transition period to 7th April 2001; after this date all equipment within its scope had to comply with its provisions. It is a development of the earlier telecoms equipment Directive, 98/13/EC. Included in its scope is all telecoms terminal equipment (TTE), and all radio equipment, and it supersedes the EMC Directive for this equipment although the EMC requirements are maintained, so that on that score at least there is little change.
It represents a fairly fundamental shift in the way that radio and telecom equipment, previously subject to national and pan-European type approval regimes, is regulated. The goals which the R&TTE Directive addresses were, basically, simplified and relaxed procedures, minimum...
