CELEX: 51990PC0139(01)
Language: en
Date: 1990-06-12
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION ON THE COORDINATED INTRODUCTION OF DIGITAL EUROPEAN CORDLESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS ( DECT ) IN THE COMMUNITY

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,                              Whereas the development of the ETS must take account of
                                                                      the safety of users, and the need for Europe-wide
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European                 interoperability;
Economic Community, and in particular Article 235
thereof,
                                                                      Whereas the European implementation of DECT will
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                    provide a unique opportunity to establish truly European
                                                                      digital cordless telephone facilities;
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,
                                                                      Whereas a coordinated policy for the introduction of DECT
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social               will make possible the establishment of a European market in
Committee,                                                            mobile handsets which will be capable of creating, by virtue
                                                                      of their size, service features, and costs, the necessary
Whereas Council recommendation 84/549/EEC( 1 ) calls for
                                                                      development conditions to establish a lead in worldwide
the introduction of services on the basis of a common
                                                                      markets;
harmonized approach in the field of telecommunications;
Whereas the Council in its resolution of 30 June 1988 (2)             Whereas such a future system, offering both voice and data
on the development of the common market for                           services, is to be based on digital techniques, thereby
telecommunication services and equipment calls for the                facilitating compatibility with the general digital
promotion of Europe-wide services according to market                 environment and the integrated services digital network
requirements;                                                         (ISDN) in the Community in accordance with Council
                                                                      recommendation 86/659/EEC (3);
Whereas       the    resources      offered      by     modern
telecommunications networks should be utilized to the full            Whereas Council Directive           . . . / . . ./EEC on the
for the economic development of the Community;                        approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning
                                                                      telecommunications terminal equipment, including the
Whereas current cordless telephone systems in use in the              mutual recognition of their conformity (4) will allow the
Community, and the frequency bands they operate in, vary              rapid establishment of common conformity specifications for
widely and do not allow the benefits of Europe-wide services          DECT;
or benefit from the economies of scale associated with a truly
Europe-wide market;
                                                                      Whereas consideration should be given to Council Directive
Whereas the European Telecommunications Standard                      83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying down a procedure
Institute (ETSI) is currently developing the European                 for the provision of information in the field of technical
telecommunications standard (ETS) for digital European                standards and regulations ( 5 ), and to Council Decision
cordless telecommunications (DECT);
                                                                      (3) OJ No L 382, 31. 12. 1986, p. 36.
H OJ No L 298, 16. 11. 1984, p. 49.                                   (4) OJ No L . . .
(2) OJ No C 257, 4. 10. 1988, p. 1.                                   (s) OJ No L 109, 26. 4. 1983, p. 8.
 ---pagebreak--- N o C 187/2                              Official Journal of the European Communities                                  27. 7. 90
87/95/EEC of 22 December 1986 on standardization                       the coordinated introduction of digital European
in    the     field   of    information    technology     and          cordless      telecommunications     (DECT)      in    the
telecommunications ( J );                                              Community. For the purposes of this recommendation,
                                                                       DECT shall mean terminal apparatus conforming to the
Whereas Council Directive 89/336/EEC of 3 May 1989 on                  European telecommunications standard for digital
the approximation of the laws of Member States relating                cordless       telecommunications      based     on      a
to electromagnetic compatibility (2) is applicable, and                multi-carrier/time division multiple access /time division
particular attention should be taken to avoid harmful                  duplex technique, and the telecommunications systems,
electromagnetic interference;                                          providing both public and private services, which
                                                                       directly utilize such terminal apparatus, and where users
Whereas it is necessary to allow unrestricted access to                provided with a service in one Member State could also
cordless communications and free circulation of DECT                   gain access to the service in any other Member State;
equipment throughout the Community;
                                                                    2. that the telecommunications administrations continue
Whereas it is appropriate to make full use of the potential of         the cooperation within the CEPT and/or ETSI,
the Community's financial instruments in order to promote              particularly concerning the objectives and time schedule
the development of the Community's telecommunications                  set out in the Annex for the completion of the
infrastructure in the Community;                                       specifications and the implementation of the DECT
                                                                       system;
Whereas consideration should be given to Council
recommendation 87/371/EEC (3) which points out that                 3. that the Commission take appropriate initiatives, within
special attention should be paid to the urgent requirement of          the application of existing directives, to encourage the
certain users for pan-European land-based communications               completion of the specifications and the implementation
and that the Commission will in future submit other                    of the DECT system;
proposals in the field of mobile communications;                    4. that the Commission develop a long-term strategy, in
Whereas the implementation of such a policy will lead to               collaboration and consultation with interested parties,
closer cooperation within Europe between the public                    for the evolution of the soon-to-be-introduced
                                                                       pan-European digital cellular and paging systems, and
telecommunications administrations and the recognized
                                                                       DECT into a universal personal communications system
private operating agencies offering public mobile
                                                                       taking account of recent studies and the ETSI work
telecommunications services, herein referred to as
                                                                       programme;
'telecommunications administrations';
                                                                    5. that the Community's financial instruments take this
Whereas favourable opinions have been delivered by the                 recommendation into account within the framework of
telecommunications administrations, by the European                    their interventions, particularly regarding capital
Conference        of    Postal   and     Telecommunications             investments required for the implementation of the
Administrations (CEPT) and by the telecommunications                   infrastructure for the DECT system;
equipment manufacturers in the Member States;
                                                                    6. that the telecommunications administrations prepare
Whereas these measures will allow the economic benefit and              and sign by 30 June 1991 at the latest a memorandum of
rapidly increasing market potential of cordless telephones to          understanding on the implementation of DECT systems
 be fully realized in the Community;                                    for public services;
Whereas the Treaty has not provided the necessary specific          7. that Member States inform the Commission at the end of
powers to this end,                                                    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
HEREBY RECOMMENDS:                                                      progress of work be examined by the Commission and
                                                                       the senior officials group on telecommunications
 1. that the telecommunications administrations implement               (SOG-T) which was set up by the Council on 4
     with due respect to the Community law the                          November 1983; and that the European Parliament be
     recommendations as described in the Annex concerning               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.
 ---pagebreak--- 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.
 ---pagebreak--- 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.