Has anyone heard whether the FCC is considering extending the provisional acceptance of EMC laboratories past the August 19, 1997 effective date?
I have heard that less than half the labs in the United States in existance prior to the rule changes ( about 250 labs) will have been accredited by the two accerditation bodies by 8/19/97. Is this felt to be a sufficient number of laboratories to effectively provide the manufacturers and suppliers of personal computers and peripherals with reports to support their DoC's? The FCC in their original Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ET-Docket No. 95-19) stated that because of the few number of labs that had NVLAP approval (20) at that time there would be a two year grace period. Many of the comments that were received by the FCC from manufacturers and laboratories alike felt that a two year or longer transition period would be needed. This topic was brought again up in the Report and Order on this same subject at point 32. The FCC did not address that topic officially until they released the Public Notice of July 16, 1996. At last check, both accreditation bodies are taking bookings for laboratories to be fully accredited in the October to November time frame. NVLAP has about 86 laboratories accredited with 30 or so in the queue and A2LA has 8 labs accredited with about 36 in the queue. Again, will there be a sufficient number of accredited laboratories to accomodate the requirements of the manufacturers and suppliers of personal computers and peripherals? Thank you, Please send responses to: [email protected]
