27. 7. 90 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 187/1 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Proposal for a Council recommendation on the coordinated introduction of digital European cordless 
telecommunications (DECT) in the Community 
COM(90) 139 final — SYN 277 
(Submitted by the Commission on 19 June 1990) 
(90/C 187/01) 
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, 
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament, 
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social 
Committee, 
Whereas Council recommendation 84/549/EEC(1) calls for 
the introduction of services on the basis of a common 
harmonized approach in the field of telecommunications; 
Whereas the Council in its resolution of 30 June 1988 (2) 
on the development of the common market for 
telecommunication services and equipment calls for the 
promotion of Europe-wide services according to market 
requirements; 
Whereas the resources offered by modern 
telecommunications networks should be utilized to the full 
for the economic development of the Community; 
Whereas current cordless telephone systems in use in the 
Community, and the frequency bands they operate in, vary 
widely and do not allow the benefits of Europe-wide services 
or benefit from the economies of scale associated with a truly 
Europe-wide market; 
Whereas the European Telecommunications Standard 
Institute (ETSI) is currently developing the European 
telecommunications standard (ETS) for digital European 
cordless telecommunications (DECT); 
H OJ No L 298, 16. 11. 1984, p. 49. 
(2) OJ No C 257, 4. 10. 1988, p. 1. Whereas the development of the ETS must take account of 
the safety of users, and the need for Europe-wide 
interoperability; 
Whereas the European implementation of DECT will 
provide a unique opportunity to establish truly European 
digital cordless telephone facilities; 
Whereas a coordinated policy for the introduction of DECT 
will make possible the establishment of a European market in 
mobile handsets which will be capable of creating, by virtue 
of their size, service features, and costs, the necessary 
development conditions to establish a lead in worldwide 
markets; 
Whereas such a future system, offering both voice and data 
services, is to be based on digital techniques, thereby 
facilitating compatibility with the general digital 
environment and the integrated services digital network 
(ISDN) in the Community in accordance with Council 
recommendation 86/659/EEC (3); 
Whereas Council Directive .../.. ./EEC on the 
approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning 
telecommunications terminal equipment, including the 
mutual recognition of their conformity (4) will allow the 
rapid establishment of common conformity specifications for 
DECT; 
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 (5), and to Council Decision 
(3) OJ No L 382, 31. 12. 1986, p. 36. 
(4) OJ No L . . . 
(s) OJ No L 109, 26. 4. 1983, p. 8. 
NoC 187/2 Official Journal of the European Communities 27. 7. 90 
87/95/EEC of 22 December 1986 on standardization 
in the field of information technology and 
telecommunications (J); 
Whereas Council Directive 89/336/EEC of 3 May 1989 on 
the approximation of the laws of Member States relating 
to electromagnetic compatibility (2) is applicable, and 
particular attention should be taken to avoid harmful 
electromagnetic interference; 
Whereas it is necessary to allow unrestricted access to 
cordless communications and free circulation of DECT 
equipment throughout the Community; 
Whereas it is appropriate to make full use of the potential of 
the Community's financial instruments in order to promote 
the development of the Community's telecommunications 
infrastructure in the Community; 
Whereas consideration should be given to Council 
recommendation 87/371/EEC (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 future submit other 
proposals in the field of mobile communications; 
Whereas the implementation of such a policy will lead to 
closer cooperation within Europe between the public 
telecommunications administrations and the recognized 
private operating agencies offering public mobile 
telecommunications services, herein referred to as 
'telecommunications administrations'; 
Whereas favourable opinions have been delivered by the 
telecommunications administrations, by the European 
Conference of Postal and Telecommunications 
Administrations (CEPT) and by the telecommunications 
equipment manufacturers in the Member States; 
Whereas these measures will allow the economic benefit and 
rapidly increasing market potential of cordless telephones to 
be fully realized in the Community; 
Whereas the Treaty has not provided the necessary specific 
powers to this end, 
HEREBY RECOMMENDS: 
1. that the telecommunications administrations implement 
with due respect to the Community law the 
recommendations as described in the Annex concerning the coordinated introduction of digital European 
cordless telecommunications (DECT) in the 
Community. For the purposes of this recommendation, 
DECT shall mean terminal apparatus conforming to the 
European telecommunications standard for digital 
cordless telecommunications based on a 
multi-carrier/time division multiple access /time division 
duplex technique, and the telecommunications systems, 
providing both public and private services, which 
directly utilize such terminal apparatus, and where users 
provided with a service in one Member State could also 
gain access to the service in any other Member State; 
2. that the telecommunications administrations continue 
the cooperation within the CEPT and/or ETSI, 
particularly concerning the objectives and time schedule 
set out in the Annex for the completion of the 
specifications and the implementation of the DECT 
system; 
3. that the Commission take appropriate initiatives, within 
the application of existing directives, to encourage the 
completion of the specifications and the implementation 
of the DECT system; 
4. that the Commission develop a long-term strategy, in 
collaboration and consultation with interested parties, 
for the evolution of the soon-to-be-introduced 
pan-European digital cellular and paging systems, and 
DECT into a universal personal communications system 
taking account of recent studies and the ETSI work 
programme; 
5. that the Community's financial instruments take this 
recommendation into account within the framework of 
their interventions, particularly regarding capital 
investments required for the implementation of the 
infrastructure for the DECT system; 
6. that the telecommunications administrations prepare 
and sign by 30 June 1991 at the latest a memorandum of 
understanding on the implementation of DECT systems 
for public services; 
7. that Member States inform the Commission at the end of 
each year, from the end of 1990 onwards, of the 
measures taken and the problems encountered in the 
course of implementing this recommendation; that the 
progress of work be examined by the Commission and 
the senior officials group on telecommunications 
(SOG-T) which was set up by the Council on 4 
November 1983; and that the European Parliament be 
regularly informed. 
(») OJ NoL 36, 7. 2. 1987, p. 31. 
(2) OJ No L 139, 23. 5. 1989, p. 19. 
(3) OJ No L 196, 17. 7. 1987, p. 81. 
27. 7. 90 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 187/3 
ANNEX 
DETAILED REQUIREMENTS ON THE COORDINATED INTRODUCTION OF DIGITAL EUROPEAN 
CORDLESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS IN THE COMMUNITY 
1. GENERAL REQUIREMENTS 
The future DECT system should be developed in accordance with the ETS being developed by ETSI and should 
comply with the following general requirements: 
— be suitable for operation over the frequency bands 1 880 to 1 900 MHz to be made available for DECT in the 
Community, 
— provide a means, using cordless technology, for meeting user requirements on an interoperable basis in respect 
of the following applications: 
— a residential service that will interconnect to ISDN /PSTN, 
— a business cordless telecommunications service that combines the features of a PBX with the mobility of 
cordless telecommunications for both voice and non-voice application, 
— a telepoint service that offers public network access to a handset through a public, or privately owned, base 
station, 
— a service that provides a radio means of extending public and private networks into customer user 
premises, 
— provide the user with a voice transmission quality approximately equal to existing fixed systems, 
— permit easy access to and from the ISDN/PSTN, 
— permit simultaneous operation of two or more independent systems in the same geographical area. 
2. CHOICE OF TRANSMISSION SYSTEM 
The detailed specification of the DECT transmission characteristics should be completed by October 1991 and 
should take account of the relevant international guidelines on limiting exposure to electromagnetic fields, and 
Council Directive 89/336/EEC of 3 May 1989 on the approximation of the laws of Member States relating to 
electromagnetic compatibility. The system must be able to support geographically co-located DECT systems. 
3. NETWORK ARCHITECTURE 
The standard for the network structure and the definition and allocation of functions between the various system 
components should be defined by October 1991. In the course of this work, the appropriate interfaces between the 
various system components should be completely specified for all OSI layers applicable to the relevant services, and 
for all applications using those interfaces (call processing functions, maintenance, etc.). 
4. SYSTEM SPECIFICATION AND IMPLEMENTATION 
Telecommunications administrations and operators should be responsible for the establishment of public services 
using DECT in their countries. The majority of traffic on each national system will be national, but 
implementation should support full roaming. Furthermore, the system specification should enable economic 
implementation in areas of both low and very high traffic density. To enable DECT to be introduced in 1992, the 
system specification should be completed by October 1991. 
5. SYSTEM FEATURES 
The services and facilities specification should be completed by October 1991, and should fall into two categories: 
minimum and additional. 
Minimum service capabilities and facilities 
Minimum services and facilities should define the minimum features available for each application. 
No C 187/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 27. 7. 90 
Minimum services for generic capability and for each potential DECT application should include the 
following: 
Generic capability: 
— interface with ISDN, 
— equivalent functions to a wired telephone directly or indirectly (e.g. via PABX) connected to 
ISDN/PSTN, 
— signalling capacity to support standard telephony features, 
— dialling and calling security, 
— emergency services, 
— compatibility between residential, business, and telepoint applications. 
Additional services and facilities 
The additional services should be provided by open competition taking into account the national conditions for the 
implementation of these services. The non-provision of an additional service or facility should not affect in any way 
the functioning of DECT. 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. SIGNALLING 
User access signalling (customer signalling) should be defined according to the principles included in ETSI 
standards for ISDN, and should enable the supplementary services of ISDN/PSTN to be provided. 
Network and inter-network signalling processes should be defined in the framework of the SS NO 7 in such a way 
that international roaming and hand-over facilities, where provided, are safeguarded. 
7. TARIFF CONSIDERATIONS 
On the basis that the DECT service in the Community will utilize radio, a scarce resource, and furthermore that the 
trend is away from charging on the basis of distance, since the transmission costs for long distance telephone calls 
represent a relatively small part of the total, the DECT public service charge should mainly depend on the duration 
of the radio channel use. 
The basic tariff principles for such matters as the charging for the Community service and cross charging between 
national operators for the handling of roaming traffic, should be identified by June 1991 so that the network 
implications can be identified and resolved in a timely manner. 
8. GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE 
DECT should be introduced in the Community from the end of 1992 at the latest. The DECT telepoint service 
should be widely available in major urban areas by 1995 at the latest. 
Furthermore, telecommunications administrations and operators should jointly study mutual priorities for 
coverage in order to stimulate the maximum Europe-wide traffic as early as possible. This should take into account 
the needs of users at major European road, rail and air transport centres.