Hi George, The answer will be different from country to country. Each has its own laws or regulations that govern radio use and type approval regulations that address device certification.
One could argue that if the national regulator type approves a product that allows user selection of channels, and a user then selects channels that are not allocated for that use in that country -- in spite of instructions or warnings included by the manufacturer with the product -- then the user bears the responsibility, not the manufacturer. Some countries seek to address this and other unwanted results of use of these devices by requiring a blanket statement with the product about interference saying that if the device does interfere it must be shut off. Some countries seek to head the whole thing off in a different way: they may not type approve a device where the country settings are user selectable. Hope this helps, -Fred Borda Compliance International www.typeapproval.com At PM 01:48 05/08/03 -0700, George Stults wrote: >Hello Group, > > > >I have a general question along the following lines. > > > >Given an 802.11b wireless product, designed for operation on Channel 1-14, >and with the capability to be configured by the user software interface >for whatever country or region the user is in: > > > >If the user chooses to configure the product to operate on channels that >are not allocated for a given country; who is in trouble, the >manufacturer, or the user, or both? > > > >And does the responsibility vary by country? > > > >Thanks in advance > > > >George Stults > >WatchGuard Technologies Inc. > > > > Fred Borda Director Marketing & Business Development Compliance International www.typeapproval.com The experts in telecommunications equipment type approval across the Asia-Pacific region 4713 First Street, Suite 280 Pleasanton, California 94566-7362 USA Tel +1.925.417.5571 (direct) Fax +1.925.417.5574 Mobile +1.650.740.5762 [email protected] This message is from the IEEE EMC Society Product Safety Technical Committee emc-pstc discussion list. Visit our web site at: http://www.ewh.ieee.org/soc/emcs/pstc/ To cancel your subscription, send mail to: [email protected] with the single line: unsubscribe emc-pstc For help, send mail to the list administrators: Ron Pickard: [email protected] Dave Heald: [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Richard Nute: [email protected] Jim Bacher: [email protected] Archive is being moved, we will announce when it is back on-line. All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
