The Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) has brought 37 more products under the Simplified Certification scheme (SCS) with effect from January 1. TEC is the technical arm of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The aim of adding the list is to reduce the time taken for certification from eight weeks to two weeks and promote ease of doing business, the Communications Ministry said in a statement.
The products added to the list include media gateway, IP security equipment, IP terminals, optical fibre or cable, transmission terminal equipment, etc. With this, the total number of products under SCS have now gone up to 49 from 12 earlier.
New regime timelines
Further, only administrative fee will be charged by TEC for essential requirement based applications submitted under MTCTE irrespective of GCS and SCS category, the official statement said. Starting January 1, only an administrative fee will be charged by the TEC for Essential Requirement (ER)-based applications submitted under the Mandatory Testing and Certification of Telecom Equipment (MTCTE) regime.

The evaluation fee has been completely waived off. This is a relief for the original equipment manufacturer (OEMs) or applicants as it amounts to reduction in application fee by more than 80 per cent, thereby further reducing the compliance burden.
This fee structure applies irrespective of the Global Conformity Assessment Scheme (GCS) and SCS category, simplifying the cost structure for applicants and promoting transparency in the certification process, read the press release.
Presently, there are 60 Telecom & Networking products which have been notified under the MTCTE regime.