No C 43/6 Official Journal of the European Communities 23. 2. 90 
II 
(Preparatory Acts) 
COMMISSION 
Revised proposal for a Council recommendation on the coordinated introduction of 
pan-European land-based public radio paging in the Community (') 
COM(90) 32 final — SYN 193 
(Submitted by the Commission pursuant to the third paragraph of Article 149 of the EEC Treaty on 
9 February 1990) 
(90/C 43/07) 
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 (2) 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 telecommuni­
cations networks should be utilized to the full for the 
economic development of the Community; 
Whereas paging services are the only low cost means of 
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 Conference of Postal and Tele­
communications administrations (CEPT) set up a special 
sub-working group referred to as Radio Equipment 
Specifications Sub-Working Group 4 (RES-4) since 
transfered to the European Telecommunication 
Standards Institute (ETSI) for planning all system 
aspects of a more advanced public display paging system 
named European radio messaging system (Ermes); 
Whereas the change to a truly advanced paging system 
named Ermes being specified by the CEPT, 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 display paging service 
will make possible the establishment of 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 that all paging receivers 
are the frequency agile type; 
Whereas it is necessary to allow unrestricted access to 
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 telecommuni­
cations terminal equipment (J) 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 (") and to Council 
Decision 87/95/EEC of 22 December 1986 on stan­
dardization in the field of information technology and 
telecommunications (5); 
Whereas it is appropriate to make use of the potential of 
the Community's existing financial instruments in order 
to promote the development of the telecommunications 
infrastructure in the Community; 
(') OJ No C 193, 31. 7. 1989, p. 8. 
(2) OJ No L 298, 16. 11. 1984, p. 49. (') OJ No L 217, 5. 8. 1986, p. 21. 
(4) OJ No L 109, 26. 4. 1983, p. 8. 
(5) OJ No L 36, 7. 2. 1987, p. 31. 
23. 2. 90 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 43/7 
Whereas consideration should be given to Council 
recommendation 87/371/EEC ('), 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 radiopaging systems; 
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 tele­
communications services, 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 recommendations 
drawn up by the Analysis and Forecasting Group (GAP) 
which provide 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 (2); 
Whereas on the basis of the detailed recommendations 
drawn up by the SOG-T, the Commission recommended 
that CEPT should reach an agreement by 1990, related 
to a more advanced code and a common radio interface 
in order to introduce a European service as soon as 
possible afterwards; 
Whereas favourable opinions on these recommendations 
have been delivered by the telecommunications adminis­
trations, and by CEPT; 
Whereas the envisaged measures will allow the economic 
benefit and rapidly increasing market potential of public 
display paging to be fully realised in the Community; 
Whereas the Treaty has not provided the necessary 
powers to this end, 
HEREBY RECOMMENDS: 
1. that the telecommunications administrations 
implement with due respect to Community law the 
detailed recommendations as described in the Annex 
concerning the coordinated introduction of 
pan-European land-based pan-European radio paging 
service in the Community. For the purposes of this 
recommendation, a pan-European land-based public 
radio paging service shall mean a public radio paging 
(') OJ No L 196, 17. 7. 1987, p. 81. 
(2) Proposals by the Analysis and Forecasting Group (GAP) for 
the coordination introduction of public mobile communi­
cations in the Community (5. 12. 1985). service based on terrestrial infrastructure, provided in 
each of the Member States to a common specification 
which allows persons wishing to send and/or to receive 
an 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 ETSI, 
particularly concerning the objectives and time schedule 
set out in the Annex for the completion of the specifi­
cations 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 public 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 telecommuni­
cations administrations complete the technical 
arrangements for the implementation of the means of 
call routing and processing, so that tone, numeric and 
alphanumeric messages can be sent from anywhere in the 
Community, to a paging receiver anywhere in the 
geographical coverage of the Ermes service by January 
1992; 
5. that the Commission takes appropriate initiatives, 
within the 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 infra­
structure for the pan-European land-based public radio 
paging system, and that the Community's technological 
research and development programmes do likewise as 
regards the development of the required technological 
base; 
7. that the telecommunications administrations 
prepare and sign by January 1990 at the latest a memo­
randum 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 
1989 onwards, of the measures taken and problems 
encountered in the course of implementing this recom­
mendation. The progress of work will be examined by 
the Commission and the Senior Officials Group on Tele­
communications (SOG-T) set up by the Council on 4 
November 1983; and that the European Parliament be 
regularly informed. 
No C 43/8 Official Journal of the European Communities 23. 2. 90 
ANNEX 
Detailed requirements on the coordinated introduction of pan-European land-based public radio 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 in the frequency band 169 to 170 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. 
The cost of the system should be considered in terms of the cost of the fixed infrastructure, met by the 
network operator, and the cost of the paging receiver, met by the users. Both costs should be within 
affordable limits and should not exceed current costs. The cost of using the home paging service 
should not be more than the costs of current home paging services. 
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 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 and in particular the RES 4 group, final decisions on the radio subsystem 
should be made by August 1989. The system specification should be decided by January 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 March 1990. However, the 
optimization and commencement of production of prototype paging receivers should begin with or 
before the decision on the radio subsystem in August 1989. This will provide a lead time for the testing 
and production of equipment before the start of service in January 1992. This early start to devel­
opment should be ensured by the close relationship and cooperation between manufacturing industry 
and ETSI. 
4. System implementation 
National operators and telecommunication administrations should be responsible for the implemen­
tation of the 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 speci­
fication 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 in January 1992, the system 
specification should be completed by January 1990. The manufacture of the system or parts of it may 
commence before completion of the specification and this will depend on a close working relationship 
between industry and ETSI. 
The system specification should include system access, call routing and processing, numbering scheme, 
and specification of paging network controller. 
23. 2. 90 Official Journal of the European Communities No C 43/9 
5. Services and facilities specified and supported by the pan-European paging system 
The services and facilities specification should be completely specified by December 1989, and should 
fall into two categories: mandatory and optional. 
Mandatory services and facilities 
Mandatory services and facilities should define the minimum features available on each national system 
and hence the pan-European system as a whole. 
Optional services and facilities 
The optional services are value added services and should be provided at the discretion of each 
operator under the conditions of open competition. The non-provision of an optional service or facility 
should not affect in any way the functioning of the pan-European service at a basic level. The 
provision of an optional service or facility on one national system should not increase the cost of the 
basic service on that system, or require an increase in functionality or an increase in cost on any other 
national system. 
6. Tariff considerations 
Telecommunication administrations should establish the principles of charging, taking full account of 
the competition rules of the Treaty, for the European service and of cross charging between national 
operators for the handling of roaming traffic. These principles should be established so that the 
network implications can be identified and resolved, and provision should be made in the functional 
specification for the network controller. This functional specification should be finalised by January 
199C. 
7. Geographical service coverage 
The pan-European public radio paging system should be introduced by January 1992 at the latest. 
Geographical service coverage in each Member State should progressively extend as follows: 
— January 1992: start of service, 
— January 1993: at least 30 % of population, 
— January 1994: at least 60 % of population, 
— January 1995: at least 80 % of population. 
The coverage obligation should include the provision of service on the main travel routes between 
areas where service has been provided. 
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. 
8. Schedule for the completion of the pan-European paging specification and service provision 
Figure 1 of this Annex gives the important milestones for the production of specifications by the 
CEPT, the schedule for the implementation of the system and the coverage obligation by the Member 
States. 
9. 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 where appropriate. 
No C 43/10 Official Journal of the European Communities 23. 2. 90 
FIGURE 1 
Schedule for the completion of PAN-European paging specification by the CEPT and service provision by 
the telecommunications administrations 
A. Service and facilities 
B. Radio subsystem decision 
C. Completion of all ETSs 
D. Start of service 
E. Percentage of the population 
covered 
30 % coverage 
60 % coverage 
80 % coverage Year/Months 
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