Importation Rules for Non-Type Approved CPE

The circular is issued pursuant to Republic Act No. 7925 and Act 3846, as amended.
The circular is also issued in line with Memorandum Circular No. 02-01-2001, titled “Revised Customer Premises Equipment Interface Standards and Procedures for Type Approval and Type Acceptance.”
Conflicting circulars, memoranda, rules, and regulations are superseded, amended, or repealed to the extent of the conflict under the circular’s final provisions (Section 3.1).

The Commission means the National Telecommunications Commission (Section 1.1).
Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) is equipment located at the customer’s premise that enables communication or serves as a relevant component intended to be connected directly or indirectly by any means to interfaces of public telecommunications networks (Section 1.2).
An interface is a network termination point where a user is provided access to a public telecommunications network through wire or wireless interface (Section 1.2).
The circular gives examples of CPE, including corded/cordless telephone sets, facsimile machines, PABX/KTS, DSL Modem, 2G/3G/4G/Wimax Modem, 2G/3G/4G mobile phones, and POS Terminal via PSTN or public wireless network (Section 1.2).

Importation of CPE under this circular may be requested by any entity intending to test use a CPE product (Section 2.1).
Importation of CPE under this circular may be requested by an applicant of CPE type approval/acceptance certificate to demonstrate and test a CPE product (Section 2.1).

A Permit to Import must be secured from the Commission prior to importation (Section 2.2).
If the shipment arrives without the necessary import permit, the importer may secure a Release Clearance in lieu of the Permit to Import (Section 2.2).
A Release Clearance may be issued for unregulated equipment (Section 2.2).

A Permit to Import issued by the Commission has a validity of ninety (90) days from the date of issuance (Section 2.3).
For mobile phones, the request for a permit must not exceed forty (40) units per model (Section 2.3(a)).
On exceptional, case-by-case grounds—such as a large-scale pilot project where the required number of mobile demonstration/testing units exceeds forty (40) per model—the Commission may allow a justified number of units upon meritorous reasons or purposes (Section 2.3(a)).
For the pilot project, the demonstration units used for pilot work must be applied for type approval/acceptance certification, and the WiFi and/or Bluetooth (if any) must be registered with the Commission if those features will be used from demonstration to commercial purposes (Section 2.3(a)).
For CPEs other than mobile phones, the request for a permit must not exceed five (5) units per model (Section 2.3(b)).
CPE imported other than for type approval/acceptance purposes must be re-exported to the country of origin after the duration of the permit (Section 2.3(c)).

A CPE importer that imports for purposes of type approval/acceptance certificate application must register the CPE within five (5) days from issuance of the corresponding certificate (Section 2.3).
If the CPE is not registered within five (5) days, the importer must re-export the CPE back to its origin within five (5) days (Section 2.3).
If type approval/acceptance certification is denied or not approved, the importer must re-export the CPE back to its origin within five (5) days from issuance of denial (Section 2.3).

Permit grantees must import only the CPEs described on the permit issued by the Commission (Section 2.4).
Permit grantees must import CPEs in quantities not exceeding the specified number of units on the permit (Section 2.4).

Any circular or memorandum, rules, and regulations in conflict with the circular are deemed superseded, amended or repealed to the extent of the conflict (Section 3.1).
Any violation of the circular is dealt with under existing circular on fines and penalties (Section 3.2).
The circular takes effect fifteen (15) days after publication in a newspaper of general circulation and submission of three (3) copies to the UP Law Center (Section 3.3).