US stamps down on non-compliant IoT devices

[Tim Kannegieter]

Interesting article on the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC) in the US issuing a thinly veiled warning targeting manufacturers and marketers of IoT devices in the US. The bottom line is that any RF emitting devices have to go through the usual compliance checks, which is nothing new. But the FCC is essentially giving notice that it is aware of the potential for IoT devices to slip through the cracks and it will not let this happen. 

See the FCC's Order and Consent Degree and an article explaining it. 

[Andrew at MEA]

Thanks Tim - a scary post, indeed.

Putting aside the $90,000 fine on that one non-compliant product/company, the FCC is essentially stating that it has the power to ban a product or manufacturer from the US market for ever!

I've talked elsewhere on this forum about the very high cost of gaining FCC and CE compliance certification ('The IoT and Electro-Magnetic Compliance')

The hidden sting in the IoT tail is that one cannot count for protection upon the US radio manufacturer's own FCC compliance statements*; you have to undertake full IoT product compliance yourself.

In Australia, this will set you back about three months and nearly $20,000.

This is one of the arguments for using radio 'modules' - as opposed to chips sets - in your IoT product design. The module will carry its own EMC compliance certificate, at the expense of a large impost in price once you start to manufacture in quantities.

 

* we found that Texas Instrument's ZigBee 'system-on-chip' radios breached the allowable FCC noise levels in the 2.4 GHz side-bands, effectively shutting us out of the US market until we fitted band-pass filters to the Plexus radio transmitters.