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The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking updates the rules that govern the evaluation and approval of RF devices. The Commission’s proposed improvements to the equipment authorization process will help us keep pace with the accelerating introduction of an ever-expanding breadth of devices and products into the marketplace.

The Commission’s proposals build on actions it recently took to modify its equipment authorization rules. We have identified additional changes that will enable us to meet the challenges of an RF equipment ecosystem that has significantly expanded since the Commission last comprehensively reviewed its equipment authorization procedures more than fifteen years ago. The manner in which today’s RF equipment is designed, manufactured, and marketed as well as the sheer number of such devices that need to be authorized warrant modifications to the rules that specify the equipment subject to the Commission’s equipment authorization procedures and responsibilities of the various stakeholders. In making these proposals, the Commission remain mindful that the equipment authorization program is one of the primary means that it uses to ensure that RF devices operating in the United States do not cause harmful interference and otherwise comply with its rules.