Regulatory Approvals for Radio Equipment

Your requirement for regulatory approvals will depend on the nature of your product and on the laws and technical standards in your chosen market. Regulatory requirements for radio equipment will generally embody the following minimum requirements:

  • Product Safety

    To protect equipment users from hazards such as cuts, toxic chemicals, electrocution, burns and exposure to electromagnetic radiation (SAR).

  • Electromagnetic Capability

    All electrical and electronic products produce unwanted radio emissions as an unintentional by-product of normal operation.


    Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) regulations place limits on the permissible level of this electromagnetic pollution in order to protect wireless communications devices from excessive levels of radio interference.

  • Efficient Use of Spectrum

    Wireless communications devices must intentionally emit and receive radio signals in order to communicate.  But the wanted radio signals intended for reception by one receiver may represent a source of radio interference to another.  Try holding a conversation with a friend in a noisy room and you will get the idea – all the other conversations will interfere with yours.


    In order to ensure that the risk of radio interference is controlled, regulations are required to limit transmitter power and operating frequencies and to ensure that the performance of radio communication equipment cannot fall below certain minimum standards.

Within Europe, the electromagnetic compatibility requirement has been extended to require products to demonstrate an adequate level of immunity to various electromagnetic phenomena such as to strong radio signals and to electrostatic discharge. The purpose of these immunity requirements is to ensure that products will continue to operate in accordance with reasonable user expectations when subjected to the electromagnetic phenomena that characterise the intended operational environment. These immunity requirements apply to both transmitting and receiving equipment.


The requirements concerned with the efficient use of spectrum also apply to both transmitting and receiving equipment. Exemptions apply to some equipment in some markets, but in general, both transmitters and receivers must be tested.


Transmitter requirements normally include the assessment of output power, modulated spectrum (bandwidth), frequency stability and spurious emissions. It is commonly required to assess performance under both normal and extreme operating conditions (high/low temperature and high/low power supply voltage).


Within Europe, it is also necessary to assess receiver performance characteristics for many classes of receiver equipment. These requirements may include receiver sensitivity, receiver blocking performance, adjacent channel rejection performance and receiver spurious emissions for example.


If you wish to sell connected product which will make use of a public cellular communications network into Australia or New Zealand, there is also a requirement to demonstrate that the device conforms to various radio interface and protocol specifications. Core specifications, together with the associated conformance specifications amount to more than 16, 000 pages.

We can help you to safely navigate the maze of regulations, standards, documentation and markings that may be required for your product.


We understand that the appropriate level of rigour will depend on the nature of your business, the positioning of your brand, the risks involved and cost. Balancing these drivers is a job for your executive management team, but we can support you by explaining the regulatory landscape and by highlighting key areas of technical risk.


You will appreciate our tenacious focus on delivery and on hitting key milestones. Our mission is simple: to help you to succeed.


We specialise in helping businesses to bring new, innovative products to market.


  • We will help you develop and deliver an effective approvals strategy that is consistent with your product marketing objectives
  • We will help you re-engineer your product to resolve any technical issues that may present a barrier to achieving compliance


If you would like to discuss how we can drive your project forward, please contact us.



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