The General Authority for Regulating the Telecommunications Sector, TRA, held a training workshop on the Telecommunications Equipment Type Approval Regime, TAR, with the participation of government entities and several telecommunications equipment manufacturers and suppliers.
During the workshop, the manufacturers and suppliers were introduced to TAR and types of telecommunications equipment overall. This workshop comes under a series of on-going workshops throughout the year, as organised by the TRA to spread awareness on the importance of the telecommunications equipment type approval.
Engineers at the Technology Development Affairs Department have shed light on the changes made to TAR according to the telecom sector requirements in general, and the telecom equipment market in particular.
Commenting on this workshop, Saif bin Ghelaita, Executive Director of TRA’s Technology Development Affairs Department, said, "This initiative comes as part of TRA’s efforts to provide best and prompt services, and since these services are accessed by smart devices used by customers, the TRA is keen to have them meet the highest global standards in effect, in terms of use safety and performance quality. Accordingly, the TRA is regularly developing the Type Approval Regime to keep pace with developments in the telecom equipment industry, in line with the significant development in telecommunications and smart technologies."
The workshops delved into the details of the TAR, TA processes and services, corporate and vendor registration, equipment registration/testing/approval, customs clearance and market inspection campaigns.
The workshops touched on the types of telecommunications equipment and the negative impact of randomly using some of them as radio devices, which often lead to interference issues. The TAR ensures that the market-available equipment does not harm the public or staff of public telecommunications networks.
The workshops also addressed the difference between prohibited and restricted equipment, where prohibited equipment was defined as equipment banned from being imported, whereas restricted equipment are those requiring special permits to be used.
The TRA has called on telecom equipment outlets to be wary of the risk of using and selling unapproved or unlicenced devices in the country and to make sure that the equipment approval sticker is labelled by vendors before the sale. Further, the TRA has cautioned about the risks of using, selling, or linking unlicensed telecom devices with telecom networks, unless approved by the TRA, given the risk they may pose on user safety, telecom networks, health, environment and community.