Hello, As being in France, I may say that I share your understanding of the situation. Manufacturers have the choice of implementing or not current limitation. - If they do, no problem. They can write on the product that it is intended to be use in France on France Telecom PSTN interface line. - If they don't, the manufacturer has to write down that the equipment is intended to be used on FT lines only when no current limitation is required (and the use has to manage getting the info from FT if its own line requires this limitation or not !!!) As far as I know, the Commission statement is not in use for the moment, either in FT interfaces specs nor in the draft of french R&TTE law (planned to be voted in 2001). It is considered as being a provision in case of problems. Regards,
Corinne Salingre Approvals Manager CS TELECOM, France > > I have a slightly different interpretation of the Commission Decision that > you reference. My interpretation is that the Commission specifically > declined to require current limiting. Instead, they said that manufacturers > must provide information to users about the intended use of the TE. TE > without current limiting must contain a warning that it should not be used on > lines that require current limiting. > > To me, this sounds like a political solution, where the Commission tried to > appear sympathetic to France Telecom's request, but basically refused to > impose current limiting for France. > > Thus, it appears to me that it is up to the manufacturer to decide whether to > implement current limiting for France. I would not necessarily recommend > that a manufacturer leave out current limiting, but it does appear to me that > they have this option. > > There are some situations where exercising this option might make sense. For > instance, if the manufacturer has an existing design that is otherwise > compliant with EU requirements, and service personnel would be installing the > equipment in only a few known locations, it might make sense for the > manufacturer to confirm that the local phone lines do not require current > limiting instead of undertaking a costly redesign to add current limiting. > > In France Telecom's filing with the Commission, they stated that 22% of their > existing lines require current limiting, but that steps are underway to > upgrade these lines. They also stated that this process would be completed > within the maximum 30 month delay that the RTTE directive allows member > states to request. My guess is that with the response that they got from the > Commission, France Telecom may feel compelled to accelerate their retrofit > program. > > Do you agree that manufacturers have the option to omit current limiting > (with appropriate warnings), or have I misunderstood the Commission decision? > > Joe Randolph > Telecom Design Consultant > Randolph Telecom, Inc. > http://www.randolph-telecom.com > ------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Jim Bacher: [email protected] Michael Garretson: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected]
