COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION of 9 October 1990 on the coordinated introduction of Pan-European land-based public radio paging in the Community (90/543/EEC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, and in particular Article 235 thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1),

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (2),

Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (3),

Whereas, by Recommendation 84/549/EEC (4), the Council calls for the introduction of services on the basis of a common harmonized approach in the field of telecommunications;

Whereas the resources offered by modern telecommunications networks should be utilized to the full for the economic development of the Community;

Whereas paging services are a particularly efficient communications method for alerting and/or sending messages to people on the move;

Whereas the land-based public paging systems currently in use in the Community do not in general allow people on the move throughout the Community to reap the benefits of European-wide paging services and European-wide markets;

Whereas the European Telecommunication Standards Institute (ETSI) has instructed the technical Committee (PS) to specify all system aspects of a more advanced public radio paging system code named European Radio Messaging System (ERMES);

Whereas the introduction of ERMES being specified by ETSI will provide a unique opportunity of establishing a truly pan-European paging service;

Whereas a coordinated policy for the introduction of a pan-European land-based public radio paging service will make it possible to establish a European market in mobile terminals (paging receivers) which will be capable of creating, by virtue of its size, service features and costs, the necessary development conditions to enable undertakings to maintain and improve their presence in world markets;

Whereas it is essential to ensure extensive use of frequency agile type receivers;

Whereas it is necessary to allow unrestricted access to radio paging services and free circulation of paging receivers throughout the Community;

Whereas in this context Community law and in particular the competition rules should be respected;

Whereas the implementation of Council Directive 86/361/EEC of 24 July 1986 on the initial stage of the mutual recognition of type approval for telecommunications terminal equipment (5) will make an important contribution towards this goal;

Whereas consideration should be given to Council Directive 83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (1) and to Council Decision 87/95/EEC of 22 December 1986 on standardization in the field of information technology and telecommunications (2);

Whereas it is appropriate to make use of the potential of the Community's financial instruments in order to promote the development of the telecommunications infrastructure in the Community;

Whereas consideration should be given to Council Recommendation 87/371/EEC of 25 June 1987 on the coordinated introduction of public pan-European cellular digital land-based mobile communications in the Community (3) which points out that special attention should be paid to the urgent requirement of certain users for pan-European land-based communications and that the Commission will in the future submit other proposals in the field of mobile communications, including radio paging systems;

Whereas the public telecommunications administrations, the recognized private operating agencies and other authorized agencies offering public mobile telecommunications services are hereinafter referred to as 'telecommunications administrations`;

Whereas a favourable opinion has been delivered by the Senior Officials Group on Telecommunications (SOG-T), on the basis of the detailed report drawn up by the Analysis and Forecasting Group (GAP) which provides a strategic basis for the development of public mobile communications in the Community with a view to enabling European users on the move to communicate efficiently and economically;

Whereas favourable opinions on this report have been delivered by the telecommunications administrations, by the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations (CEPT) and by telecommunications equipment manufacturers in the Member States;

Whereas the envisaged measures will allow the economic benefit and rapidly increasing market potential of public radio paging to be fully realized in the Community;

Whereas the Treaty does not provide, for the action concerned, powers other than those of Article 235,

HEREBY RECOMMENDS:

1. that the telecommunications administrations implement with due respect for Community law the detailed recommendations as described in the Annex concerning the coordinated introduction of pan-European land-based public radio paging in the Community. For the purposes of this Recommendation, 'pan-European land-based public radio paging service` shall mean a public radio paging service based on a terrestrial infrastructure in the Member States in accordance with a common specification which allows persons wishing to do so to send and/or to receive alert and/or numeric or alphanumeric messages anywhere within the coverage of the service in the Community;

2. that the telecommunications administrations continue the cooperation within the CEPT and, with the collaboration of manufacturers and users, within ETSI, particularly concerning the objectives and time schedule set out in the Annex for the completion of the specifications and service implementation of the pan-European land-based public radio paging system;

3. that the telecommunications administrations plan for a gradual evolution from existing radio paging systems to the pan-European land-based public radio paging system so as to ensure a transition which meets the needs of users, telecommunications administrations and manufacturers;

4. that Member State Governments and telecommunications administrations complete the technical arrangements for the implementation of the means of call routing and processing, so that tone and/or numeric or alphanumeric messages can be sent from anywhere in the Community to a radio paging receiver anywhere in the geographical coverage of the Ermes service by 31 December 1992 at the latest;

5. that the Commission take appropriate initiatives, within the framework of application of existing Directives, to encourage the completion of the specifications and the implementation of the pan-European land-based public radio paging system, within the time schedule set out in the Annex;

6. that the Community's financial instruments take this Recommendation into account within the framework of their interventions, particularly as regards capital investments required for the implementation of the infrastructure for the pan-European land-based public radio paging system;

7. that the telecommunications administrations prepare and sign by July 1990 at the latest a memorandum of understanding on the implementation of pan-European land-based public radio paging;

8. that Member State Governments inform the Commission at the end of each year, from the end of 1990 onwards, of the measures taken and problems encountered in the course of implementing this Recommendation. The progress of work will be examined by the Commission and the Senior Officials Group on Telecommunications (SOG-T); that the European Parliament be regularly informed.

Done at Luxembourg, 9 October 1990. For the Council The President P. ROMITA

ANNEX

ANALYSIS OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COORDINATED INTRODUCTION OF PAN-EUROPEAN LAND-BASED PUBLIC PAGING IN THE COMMUNITY 1. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS The future pan-European public radio paging system should fulfil the following general requirements:

- be suitable for operation over the whole frequency band range 169,4 MHz to 169,8 MHz with 25 KHz radio channels;

- permit an increase in the number of paging users which can be supported per paging area per unit of spectrum and for the same grade of service compared to systems based on CCIR Radio Paging Code No 1 (Pocsag), assuming the same mix of tone, numeric and alphanumeric pagers;

- permit easy access via PSTN, PSS, Videotex terminals, telex and other forms of direct access such as via ISDN;

- permit simultaneous operation of two or more independent systems in the same geographic area and permit several independent systems in areas where several national boundaries meet.

Access facilities should be provided for a calling party to initiate a paging request from service areas anywhere in the Community in the most cost effective and easy manner.

2. CHOICE OF RADIO SUBSYSTEM Considerable experience in designing, manufacturing and operating public radio paging systems already exists in Europe. Much of this experience derives from the successful development and exploitation of the European Pocsag paging code (now CCIR Radio Paging Code No 1) by manufacturers and telecommunications administrations. This accumulated experience and knowledge should speed the task of selecting a suitable radio subsystem for the pan-European paging system. On the basis of the work underway within ETSI, the system specification should be decided by June 1990. The radio subsystem specification covers the modulation method, channel coding, the radio system structure and the pager's radio identity code structure (RIC).

3. THE PAGING RECEIVER SPECIFICATION The specification of the paging receiver will cover the radio-performance, services and facilities and physical characteristics. The receiver specification should be finalized by June 1990. However, the optimization and commencement of production of prototype paging receivers should begin if possible as soon as the decision is taken on the radio subsystem in September 1989. This will provide a lead time for the testing and production of equipment before the start of service in December 1992 at the latest. This early start to development should be ensured by the close cooperation of manufacturing industry in the system specification in particular with ETSI.

4. SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION Telecommunication administrations should be responsible for the implementation of the radio paging system in their countries. The largest proportion of traffic on each national system will be national traffic, but implementation should support full roaming. Furthermore, the system specification should allow flexibility to enable economic implementation both in areas of low traffic density and areas of very high traffic density. To enable the service to commence by 31 December 1992 at the latest, the system specification should be completed by June 1990.

The system specification should include system access, call routing and processing, numbering scheme, and specification of paging network controller.

5. SERVICES AND FACILITIES SPECIFIED AND SUPPORTED BY THE PAN-EUROPEAN RADIO PAGING SYSTEM The services and facilities specification should be completely specified by December 1989, and should fall into two categories: minimum and additional.

Minimum services and facilities Minimum services and facilities are those which should be available on each national system and hence the pan-European system as a whole.

Additional services and facilities The additional services are those which should be provided in open competition allowing for the national conditions for implementing such services. The non-provision of an additional service or facility should not affect in any way the functioning of the pan-European service at a basic level. The provision of an additional service or facility on one national system should not increase the cost of the minimum service on that system, or require an increase in functionality or an increase in cost on any other national system.

6. TARIFF CONSIDERATIONS The principles of charging for the European service should be established taking full account of the competition rules of the Treaty for the European service, of cross charging between national operators for the handling of roaming traffic and of network technicalities. Administrations should endeavour to ensure that the user cost of the future radio paging service is not higher than that of current services of the same type.

7. GEOGRAPHICAL SERVICE COVERAGE Administrations should study priorities for service coverage in order to stimulate the maximum pan-European traffic demand at the earliest possible stage compatible with commercial strategies.

The pan-European public radio paging system should be introduced by 31 December 1992 at the latest. The objective is geographical coverage by the service offered in each Member State, which should progressively extend as follows:

- 31 December 1992: start of service,

- January 1994: at least 25 % of population,

- January 1995: at least 50 % of population,

- January 1997: at least 80 % of population.

8. SPECIAL REQUIREMENT Consideration should be given to providing within the Ermes system the ability to have displayed, on the radio paging receiver, characters in all official Community languages, wherever possible.