New guideline for the conformity assessment of smartphones

The European Commission published a new guideline for the conformity assessment of smartphones. The European Delegated Regulation 2019/320, adopted on 12 December 2018, aims at making emergency communications from mobile devices more effective, notably by improving the accuracy of the caller location. The delegated act requires mobile devices manufacturers to support “technical solutions for the reception and processing of Wi-Fi data, and data from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) compatible and interoperable with at least the Galileo system”. This requirement shall apply from 17 March 2022.

The mobile devices concerned have been defined in the delegated act as “hand-held mobile telephones with features similar to those of a computer in terms of capability to treat and store data”, commonly referred to as smartphones.

The European standardization organization ETSI decided not to accept the Commission’s standardization request in December 2020. As a result of this decision, there will be no harmonized standard allowing to demonstrate the compliance with Delegated Regulation 2019/320. Instead, compliance will need to be assessed by notified bodies through conformity assessment procedures.

This guideline is to support the Notified Bodies (and manufacturers) in charge of radio equipment compliance assessment in applying a consistent approach related to the requirements. It includes technical solutions to show compliance to the essential requirement of article 3 (3) (g) of the European Radio Equipment Directive.

You can download the Guideline on the official website of the European Commission here:

Guidelines for compliance with delegated regulation (EU) 2019/320

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