G/TBT/N/EU/589  
 
24 July 2018  
(18-4664) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
  
NOTIFICATION  
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6  
 
1. Notifying Member: EUROPEAN UNION   
If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):   
2. Agency responsible: European Commission  
Name and address (including telephone and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above:   
European Commission  
EU-TBT Enquiry Point  
Fax: +(32) 2 299 80 43  
E-mail: grow-eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
Website: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools -databases/tbt/en/  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:  
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applicable, otherwise national tariff 
heading. ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable): HS Code 
851712  
5. Title, number of pages and language(s) of the notified document: Draft 
Commission Delegated Regulation supplementing Directive 2014/53/EU of the European 
Parliament and of the Council with regard to the application of the essential requirements 
referred to in Article 3 (3) (g) of that Directive in order to ensure caller location in 
emergency comm unications from mobile devices (9 page(s), in English)  
6. Description of content: This draft Commission Delegated Regulation aims to ensure that 
hand-held mobile telephones with advanced computing capabilities (commonly known as 
'smartphones') ensure acce ss to emergency services.  
This will be done by requiring mobile device producers to support technical solutions for 
the reception and processing of location data derived from Wi -Fi signals, and data from 
Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) compatibl e and interoperable with at least the 
Galileo system (Galileo is the European global navigation satellite system established 
under Regulation (EU) No 1285/2013) for the purpose of making emergency 
communications more effective.  
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where 
applicable: The current practice of establishing caller location in emergency 
communications from mobile phones is based on cell -ID positioning. The caller location 
solution is based on  the identification of the coverage area of the serving cell -tower of a 
mobile phone, which may not necessarily be the closest cell -tower. In certain cases, 
notably in mountains and cities, this can lead to significant errors in positioning emergency 
callers. 
In the meantime, advanced computing capabilities have been incorporated into mobile 
phones that can process the location data from GNSS and Wi -Fi information which allows G/TBT/N/EU/589  
 
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  for a solution which would provide more accurate caller location. A caller -locati on solution 
based on a hybrid system that continues to provide cell -ID positioning, together with the 
Wi-Fi and GNSS location information already available on the end -user's mobile phone, 
would lead to significant benefits in both indoor and outdoor emerge ncy situations.  
Use of GNSS would allow for much more accurate caller location and would facilitate faster 
and more effective rescue efforts, together with an optimisation of emergency resources. 
Field tests conducted across four EU Member States as part o f an EU funded project 
(Help112) have shown a real difference in accuracy between cell -ID location and GNSS 
location: cell -ID location accuracy ranged between 1.5 and 5 kilometres; while GNSS 
location accuracy ranged between 6 and 28 metres. This is signif icant as in 2017, 301 
million emergency calls were made to emergency services. A large majority (71%) of 
these calls were placed from mobile phones.  
The impact on mobile device manufacturers are expected to be minimal as they are 
targeted towards those mob ile phones that are already GNSS -enabled. Nearly all new 
smartphones currently on the market have GNSS capability.The Delegated Regulation 
would simply reinforce current market trends by adding legal certainty.  
8. Relevant documents:   
• HELP 112 Study ( https://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/help112 -project_en ) 
• ETSI Technical Report (103393) on Advance Mobile Location for Emergency Call 
(https://www.etsi.org/deliver/etsi_tr/103300_103399/103393/01.01.01_60/tr_10
3393v010101p.pdf ) 
9. Proposed date of adoption: October 2018  
Proposed date of entry into force: 20 days from publication in t he Official Journal of the 
EU (The provisions shall apply from October 2021)  
10. Final date for comments: 60 days from notification  
11. Texts available from: National enquiry point [  ] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers and email and website addresses, if available, of other body:   
European Commission  
EU-TBT Enquiry Point  
Fax: + (32) 2 299 80 43  
E-mail: grow-eu-tbt@ec.europa.eu  
 
The tex t is available on the EU -TBT Website: http://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools -
databases/tbt/en/  
 
https://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2018/TBT/EEC/18_3954_00_e.pdf