Before any radio-emitting device can be sold in the United States, an FCC-recognized lab has to test it. That covers drones, controllers, video transmitters, gimbal cameras and the phones that fly them. FCC records show that most of that testing now happens in a single country. On Oct. 7, Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the Commission will vote at its Oct. 29 Open Meeting on rules that would limit FCC recognition of test labs to those in the United States or in "Reciprocal Economies," meaning countries or territories that recognize US labs in return. Starting Dec. 1, 2028, according to the FCC news release, "all testing, certifying, and accreditation activities" would have to take place in the US or a Reciprocal Economy.

Mainland China is not on that list. In practice, the order would take FCC compliance testing out of the country that, by the Commission's own count, handled more than four-fifths of it last year.

The numbers behind the order

The 78-page draft Third Report and Order and Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FCC-CIRC2610-05, ET Docket No. 24-136) lays out the concentration in detail. The FCC currently recognizes 609 test labs. Of those, 25.1% are in the People's Republic of China, 18.4% in Taiwan, 17.9% in the United States, 9.4% in Japan and 6.6% in South Korea. The draft notes that only 27% of recognized labs sit in non-Reciprocal Economies.

The lab count understates China's share of the actual work. By place of testing, the draft says US labs handled about 31% of applications in 2007, ahead of Taiwan at 20% and the PRC at 13%. By 2025 the PRC's share had risen "from roughly 13% in 2007 to more than 82%." Over the same period the US share fell below 4% and Taiwan's fell to about 8%. Elsewhere the order puts the figure at 82.3% and warns that "a legal restriction, political dispute, natural disaster, cyber incident, or operational failure" in that one economy "could delay a large portion of new certification applications."

Carr's statement in the release gives the same point a political framing: "less than 4% of all electronic devices are tested in labs located inside the U.S., and the lion's share are tested in countries that do not operate a reciprocal economy. So today, we take appropriate action to insist on fair and reciprocal treatment in international commerce."

How the cutoff would work

The mechanism is a single shared deadline, not a rolling phase-out. Under the draft, OET would keep granting recognition to labs in non-Reciprocal Economies until the deadline, but each new recognition would be shortened to end on Dec. 1, 2028. The order's own example: a lab recognized on Jan. 1, 2027 gets 23 months, and one recognized on Jan. 1, 2028 gets 11. All of those recognitions "would automatically terminate on December 1, 2028, regardless of issuance date," according to the fact sheet attached to the draft.

Other provisions that matter to manufacturers:

  • Existing grants survive. The prohibition applies to applications received on or after Dec. 1, 2028 and "will not disturb equipment authorizations granted or applications received before that date." Certifications granted before the deadline stay valid unless separately revoked.
  • No waiver process. The Commission "declines to establish a general waiver process for Test labs in non-Reciprocal Economies," rejecting proposals for risk-based exceptions or a whitelist of high-performing labs.
  • Location of the work counts, not just the lab's home country. The rules also cover labs, Telecommunication Certification Bodies and accreditation bodies based in the US or a Reciprocal Economy if they carry out the testing or certification inside a non-Reciprocal Economy. Under that language, a US-headquartered lab's branch in Shenzhen would get no exemption.
  • The list can change. The draft has OET publish and update the Reciprocal Economies list, and set up a way to remove an economy that is not providing reciprocal treatment in practice. The current list is in Appendix D. It includes Hong Kong, Taiwan (named "Chinese Taipei" in the APEC Telecom MRA), Vietnam and Japan, among others.
  • A further rulemaking. The attached FNPRM asks for comment on ways to expand US and Reciprocal Economy testing capacity. It also asks about requiring Legal Entity Identifiers for labs and certifiers, improved post-market surveillance, and requiring that Supplier's Declaration of Conformity testing be done in FCC-recognized labs.

Industry asked for more time. The draft's own footnotes show the Consumer Technology Association asked for at least three years, the Information Technology Industry Council for three to five, and the Alliance for Automotive Innovation for at least 36 months. The Commission chose roughly 24 months and said longer timelines "would unreasonably postpone critical national-security and program-integrity benefits." The draft also notes that China's WTO/TBT comments asked for at least 18 to 24 months.

Where this sits relative to "Bad Labs" and the Covered List

This is the third step in a sequence. Last year's "Bad Labs" rules barred test labs owned or controlled by foreign adversaries. The release says those rules have so far cost 29 labs their FCC recognition. The Commission has also withdrawn recognition from two labs in non-Reciprocal Economies, and started proceedings against two more, over what it called "copied-and-pasted test results." The wire report carried by The Business Standard notes that the new action widens the 2025 ownership-based restriction to all Chinese labs. The FCC said a substantial majority of China-based labs were still testing US electronics.

The new order is based on where the testing happens, not on who owns the lab. The draft also says the Commission considered and did not adopt a broader prohibition. DroneXL, reading the same draft, describes that rejected option as a broader ownership-based ban backed by the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

For drones, the timing interacts with the Covered List. DroneXL points out that the DJI Mini 5 Pro cannot get a new equipment grant regardless of where it is tested, because of the Covered List action dated Dec. 22, 2025. Aircraft already shut out by that action gain nothing and lose nothing from the lab rule. The products affected are the ones still eligible for grants.

Why It Matters

The rule reaches much further than one Chinese manufacturer. Any company that sends hardware to a mainland-China lab for its FCC test report is affected. DroneXL says that includes American and European brands that ship hardware to Shenzhen for testing. Radios, video and control links, ground stations and payload cameras are all radio-frequency devices that need FCC equipment authorization. After Dec. 1, 2028, each new authorization will need a test report from a lab in the US or a Reciprocal Economy.

DroneXL gives a concrete example of DJI exposure outside the Covered List. It reports that the DJI Osmo Pocket 4P was tested by SGS-CSTC in Shenzhen, and that three other SGS-CSTC branches have already lost FCC recognition. Products in that category, still eligible for grants but tested in mainland China, would have to find new labs before their next filing after the deadline.

The bigger issue is capacity. The FCC's own data puts US labs at under 4% of 2025 testing volume. If more than 80% of the work has to move to US, Taiwanese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese or Hong Kong labs within about two years, there could be backlogs. The FNPRM asks for comment on how to grow testing capacity. Cost is the other factor. DroneXL quotes US lab owner Michael Schafer as saying mainland labs price 30 to 70% below US competitors. The draft makes a similar point: it argues labs in non-Reciprocal Economies "can operate with lower compliance costs and offer artificially low rates."

For small UAS makers and integrators, including the "NDAA-compliant" and Blue UAS suppliers that have been building alternatives to Chinese airframes, a reasonable step is to check where their radios and modules were tested. A component from a domestic-branded supplier could still carry a Shenzhen test report. Grants in hand stay valid, but under the draft's rule on applications received on or after the deadline, a new filing for a new SKU or radio revision would need a US or Reciprocal Economy lab. The Oct. 29 vote will settle whether the draft is adopted as written. If it is, the date in the order gives manufacturers about two years to qualify new labs.

Sources