Patrick,
Not exactly. What you said is mostly true, and to the letter of the original
text, but there are added flexibilties.
It doesn't need to be the antenna that the manufacturer actually sells. For
example, if the manufacturer OEMed a MTI antenna for certification,
operators can now use the functional MTI antenna bought direct. Also in
face to face meetings, even though not the written text, we asked if
operators could take responsibilty for determining the functional
equivellent. They responded that the reason the Manufacturers were required
to be the one, is that there had to be someone to take responsibilty, where
it was inforcable to comply. It was a grey area, but FCC staff stated that
if the operator took responsibility, it could be feasible that it was
allowed for the Operator to make the substitution. The arguement is as
integrators we have the abilty to get certifications just like
Manufacturers. So really the letter of the law was that who ever got the
gear certified originally, would ahve the abilty to make the modifications
of whats considered functional equivellent. What this meant was that if an
Operator isntalled an uncertifed network, but used gear that could be
certified, meaning making qualified decisions, it was within the Operators
power to correct the violation, by getting the components certified.
Although the politically correct method would be to certify the gear
combination a head of time. But my point is its not just the manufacturer
that has the master decission.
With that said, its rare that a operator would want to go through the cost
of certification, when the manufacturer already did, if the manufacturer now
also had cost effective ways to make decissions on what gear is acceptable
to use under the certification, and manufacturers had fair pricing on
antenna gear, to take away the motive for someone to self certify.
Tom DeReggi
RapidDSL & Wireless, Inc
IntAirNet- Fixed Wireless Broadband
----- Original Message -----
From: "Patrick Leary" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "'WISPA General List'" <wireless@wispa.org>
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 3:29 PM
Subject: RE: [WISPA] roll your own radios..
John is 100% accurate. Also, with respect to using your own antenna, even
with that new relaxation of the rules, it ONLY applies to manufacturers,
NOT
operators. What is does is to enable manufacturers to self-certify
additional antennas so long as the power is the same or less as the
originally certified version AND the beam pattern is fundamentally
similar.
This rule does NOT permit operators to use whatever antennas they like.
As always, I know from 1st hand direct questioning of those FCC staffers
who
wrote the rule revision. This is not hearsay, my assumption or my
interpretation.
Patrick Leary
AVP Marketing
Alvarion, Inc.
o: 650.314.2628
c: 760.580.0080
Vonage: 650.641.1243
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On
Behalf Of John Scrivner
Sent: Friday, August 18, 2006 11:31 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; WISPA General List
Subject: Re: [WISPA] roll your own radios..
The rules state that any radio / antenna combination has to either be a
certified system or that a substitute antenna used would have to meet
the same specs as one used for certification in a system. Many think
that this means "anything goes". The truth is that there are almost
certainly a good bit of installed systems which would not pass FCC
enforcement inspection. Many believe that following maximum EIRP rules
is the only requirement. This is not so. It is a good practice if you
are not following the rules but that does not mean it is legal. Another
common belief is that "anything goes" is the rule of thumb due to the
general lack of enforcement in unlicensed bands. This is unfortunate and
further illustrates the need for our industry to mature.
Part of this maturity process should start by operators demanding to see
FCC certifications for the systems they buy. It is tough for operators
to remain compliant when so few systems are certified. Another step
should be that manufacturers certify their systems with commonly used
antenna / radio configurations every time they release a product.
Finally, distributors need to demand that all systems they sell meet
certification requirements. The fact is that certification is not
terribly costly or complicated and should be a step taken by all
manufacturers and eventually all of us. If anyone here represents
manufacturers who certify all their systems then now would be a good
time to toot your horn.
I believe the day will likely come that the FCC will inspect WISP
systems. It took them about 20 years to start cracking down on the cable
television industry for signal leakage and other infractions. Something
tells me this industry will not have to wait that long. Of course the
decision to follow the rules is inevitably up to each person. I would
like to think we all will be compliant in the future but this is an
unrealistic goal I am sure if manufacturers do not take a leadership
role in this effort. WISPA stops short of demanding that members do
anything but I will say, as President of WISPA, we should all try to
follow the law regarding this industry. No industry association could
expect to have impact in policy and legislative efforts if they took the
stand that shirking the law is a correct course of action.
Scriv
chris cooper wrote:
It sounds like several of you here build your own radios and use off
the shelf antennas. So if I buy a board, cards and an antenna what
are my obligations to FCC as far as having a certified system in
production? Thanks for the education
Chris
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