Proposed changes to radiocommunications equipment regulation - consultation 37/2022

We received 11 public submissions to this consultation. You can access these at the bottom of the page. The submissions broadly supported making the instruments, with some submissions offering suggestions for amendment.

After reviewing submissions, we made:

• the Radiocommunications Equipment (General) Amendment Rules 2023 (No. 1)
• the Communications Legislation (Protected Symbols) Determination 2023
• the Telecommunications Legislation Amendment (Significant Event) Instrument (No. 1) 2023
• the Radiocommunications (Low Interference Potential Devices) Class Licence Variation 2023 (No. 1).

We have published an outcomes paper, which is available in the key documents section. The paper summarises the submissions received, our responses and describes how we reached our regulatory policy decisions.

We are proposing to incorporate the content of 13 existing radiocommunications mandatory technical standards and the Radiocommunications (Compliance Labelling Devices) Notice 2014 (the RLN) into the Radiocommunications Equipment (General) Rules 2021. These are also known as the General Equipment Rules.

The proposal has mostly minor clarifications. It does not change the basic requirements of the radiocommunications mandatory technical standards and the RLN. However, it does repeal one radiocommunications mandatory technical standard. This relates to 121.5 MHz and 243 MHz emergency position-indicating radio beacons. 

We want to adopt 5 equivalent international standards to give suppliers more flexibility in complying with technical requirements. We also propose to remake the Protected Symbols Determination 2013 before it sunsets on 1 April 2023. This includes removing references to the redundant A-Tick and C-Tick mark.

We plan to replace the interim test method IEC TR 63170 that is currently referenced in the General Equipment Rules.  This will be replaced by the recently published Electromagnetic Emissions (EME) test method standard IEC/IEEE 63195 (Parts 1 and 2).

We want to amend the ‘significant event’ provision in several ACMA instruments, including the Radiocommunications (Low Interference Potential Devices) Class Licence 2015. This will give us flexibility to administer the provision.