PUBLIC NOTICE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 1919 M STREET NW WASHINGTON, D.C. 20554 News media information 202/418-0500. Recorded listing of releases and texts 202/418-2222. January 14, 1998 EQUIPMENT AUTHORIZATION DIVISION OF THE OFFICE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCES ROUND TABLE DISCUSSIONS ON EVALUATING RADIOFREQUENCY EXPOSURE COMPLIANCE OF MOBILE AND PORTABLE DEVICES The Office of Engineering and Technology (OET) will hold its next "Round Table" discussion on Equipment Authorization matters on February 18, 1998. The Topic of discussion will be "Evaluating Radiofrequency Exposure Compliance of Mobile and Portable Devices". This topic, due to its complexity, will consists of sub-topics handled in several sessions on the same day. The Commission is conducting these ongoing "Round Table" discussions in order to educate the public on our equipment authorization process and to try to identify methods and policies that may streamline this process. As with the earlier sessions, and in order to further this goal, the focus of these meetings will be to provide guidance to applicants, to identify mechanisms that can further improve our service to the public and to further a common understanding of our rules and of industry standards, measurement procedures, and application submittal requirements. We will not address individual applications or specific products during these discussions. Instead, we will limit these discussions to general means and methods for improving our service and to inform the public on our policies and our rules and regulations. Because of space limitations we will limit attendance at these working discussions to twenty guests per session. However, if responses are numerous we will consider establishing additional sessions in order to offer as many interested parties as possible the opportunity to participate. We have scheduled the next "Round Table" for morning and afternoon sessions in order to cover the various aspects of evaluating compliance of mobile and portable devices with FCC-adopted limits for human exposure to radiofrequency (RF) emissions. The morning sessions will include discussions on appropriate methods to ensure compliance with respect to 15.247(b)(4) for Spread Spectrum Transmitters that are generally categorically excluded from routine environmental evaluation, and procedures for evaluating mobile devices with respect to MPE limits. The afternoon session will be mainly on evaluating portable devices with respect to SAR limits using measurement or computational methods. Attendees may consult Supplement C to the OET Bulletin 65, which was released on December 30, 1997, for background information on RF exposure evaluations. Supplement C can be downloaded from the FCC Internet Site - http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/documents/bulletins/#65. The schedule for the next "Round Table" is as follows: February 18, 1998 9:00 am - 10:30 am Methods to ensure RF exposure compliance for 15.247(b)(4) Spread Spectrum Transmitters 10:45 am - 12 noon Evaluating mobile devices with respect to MPE limits using field strength and/or power density 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm Evaluating portable devices with respect to SAR limits using measurement or computational methods These sessions will be held in the Conference Room of the FCC Laboratory, 7435 Oakland Mills Road, Columbia, Maryland. We are still considering other topics for future sessions, and have established a survey on the FCC web site seeking comments on future sessions on other topics that might be of interest (See http://www.fcc.gov/oet/). If you haven't already done so, we encourage you to comment, regarding the topics that you would like considered in future "Round Tables". If you are interested in reserving a place in these sessions please contact Phyllis Parrish of the OET Customer Service Branch, Columbia Maryland at (301) 725-1585 ext. 246 (or by email - PPARRISH@FCC.GOV) by February 2, 1998. You must register for the individual morning and afternoon sessions. We will reserve your place at these discussion groups on a first come first served basis. Due to limited space, we are restricting attendance to representatives of test labs and manufacturers. Depending on the interest we may limit participation to no more than one representative per company or organization. We can not guarantee that all interested parties will be accommodated. If you are selected to attend you will receive confirmation at least one week prior to the session. However, if we receive a high degree of interest, we will consider additional sessions on these initial topics. Please note that travel arrangements and hotel reservations are the responsibility of the attendees. Anyone needing directions to the FCC Laboratory should provide their fax numbers in their response. Further, since we expect these discussions to be two-way dialogues, we ask that attendees come prepared to discuss problem areas and pertinent questions regarding the application submittal process, interpretations of industry standards and measurement requirements. We also encourage interested parties to provide us, in advance, suggested areas for discussion at these round tables and any questions that they would like the Commission staff to address at these meetings. We plan to make audio recordings of the round table discussions. Copies may be purchased through Infocus, 341 Victory Drive, Herndon, VA 20170 (telephone number (703) 834-0100). - FCC -