Federal Office for Approvals in Telecommunications

Federal Office for Approvals in Telecommunications

Bundesamt für Zulassungen in der Telekommunikation
Agency overview
Formed	1982
Jurisdiction	Germany
Status	Defunct
Headquarters	Saarbrücken
Parent agency	Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications

Approval sticker on an ISDN expansion card [de] from Hermstedt.

Example of an approval certificate from the BZT

The Federal Office for Approvals in Telecommunications (German: Bundesamt für Zulassungen in der Telekommunikation, BZT) was a federal agency in Germany responsible for approving telecommunication devices. It was seated in Saarbrücken.^[1]

History

The origins of the BZT lie in the Central Office for Licensing in Telecommunications (German: Zentralamt für Zulassungen im Fernmeldewesen) (ZZF), founded in 1982,^[2] which took over the licensing tasks from the Central Telecommunications Technical Office in Darmstadt.[1] As part of the postal reform, the ZZF was separated from the then German Federal Post Office in 1989 and became an independent federal office, directly subordinate to the Federal Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications^[3]

On March 10, 1992, the ZZF was renamed BZT. In 1996, it was finally merged with the Federal Office for Post and Telecommunications [de] in Mainz.^[4] After transferring a large part of the BAPT's regulatory tasks to the Regulatory Authority for Posts and Telecommunications, the licensing tasks were finally handed over to private accredited companies.^[5] The BZT's laboratory facilities in Saarbrücken were sold to Cetecom GmbH upon expiration of the official licensing at the beginning of 1998. On April 7, 2000, the national licensing requirement ended, and manufacturers were required to comply with EU Directive 1999/5/EC. Parts of these tasks were taken over by the Federal Network Agency, which still maintains an office in Saarbrücken.

Criticism

Because cheap modems from the United States were banned, the Chaos Computer Club published schematics of modems. The Datenklo modem became well known.^[6]

See also

• British Approvals Board for Telecommunications

References

1. "5.1.1.2". Handbuch für die Telekommunikation. Springer. 2013. ISBN 978-3642977022.
2. "Zehn Jahre Bundesamt für Zulassungen in der Telekommunikation: Görts: Endgeräte-Zulassung bleibt Regulierungs-Instrument". Computerwoche (in German). Archived from the original on 2018-10-04. Retrieved 2021-07-13.
3. "Computerwoche: Zehn Jahre Bundesamt für Zulassungen in der Telekommunikation. In: Computerwoche" (in German). Retrieved 2025-04-01.
4. "DATACOM Buchverlag GmbH: BZT (Bundesamt für Zulassungen in der Telekommunikation). In: ITwissen.info". Retrieved 2017-06-15.
5. "Bundesnetzagentur: Zulassung von TK-Einrichtungen" (in German). bundesnetzagentur.de. Retrieved 2017-06-15.
6. "25 Jahre Chaos Computer Club". Archived from the original on 2021-07-09. Retrieved 2021-07-13.