Late last year, Version 1.8.1 of EN 300 328 was adopted and published in the EU’s Official Journal (OJ). This standard is the applicable standard for WiFi, Bluetooth, and other wideband transmitters operating in the 2.4GHz band.
Version 1.8.1 has an effective date of December 31, 2014, so declarations of conformity with the Radio and Telecommunication Terminal Equipment (R&TTE) Directive based on testing against EN 300 328, v1.7.1 would need to be re-evaluated before the end of 2014 for devices going into the EU market after this date. Devices already in the market will be grandfathered in.
However, at the same time as the v1.8.1 adoption, a note was added to v1.7.1 in the OJ, stating that part of the new v1.8.1 requirements – medium utilization factors – needed to be immediately implemented and tested.
The upshot: Radio modules tested and found compliant to v1.7.1 need to be retested due to the additional requirement – there is no longer a presumption of conformity with the R&TTE Directive. This has caused confusion and headache for manufacturers and some test labs.
In conclusion, wireless modules tested to the un-amended v1.7.1 need to be retested now to the latest version of the standard. By January 1, 2015, all wireless equipment in the 2.4GHz band needs to be tested to v1.8.1.
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Contact us for an overview of changes specified in v1.8.1.