CELEX: 51990PC0032(01)
Language: en
Date: 1990-02-07
Title: REVISED PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION ON THE COORDINATED INTRODUCTION OF PAN-EUROPEAN LAND-BASED PUBLIC RADIO PAGING IN THE COMMUNITY

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,                          Whereas a coordinated policy for the introduction of a
                                                                   pan-European land-based public display paging service
 Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European             will make possible the establishment of a European
 Economic Community, and in particular Article 235                 market in mobile terminals (paging receivers) which will
 thereof,                                                          be capable of creating, by virtue of its size, service
                                                                   features and costs, the necessary development conditions
 Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
                                                                   to enable undertakings to maintain and improve their
 Having regard      to   the  opinion   of   the   European        presence in world markets;
 Parliament,
                                                                   Whereas it is essential to ensure that all paging receivers
 Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                  are the frequency agile type;
 Social Committee,
Whereas Council recommendation 84/549/EEC (2) calls                Whereas it is necessary to allow unrestricted access to
 for the introduction of services on the basis of a common         paging services and free circulation of paging receivers
 harmonized approach in the field of telecommunications;           throughout the Community;
Whereas the resources offered by modern telecommuni-
cations networks should be utilized to the full for the           Whereas in this context Community law and in
economic development of the Community;                             particular the competition rules should be respected;
Whereas paging services are the only low cost means of            Whereas the implementation of Council Directive
alerting and/or sending messages to people on the move;            86/361/EEC of 24 July 1986 on the initial stage of the
                                                                  mutual recognition of type approval for telecommuni-
Whereas the land-based public paging systems currently            cations terminal equipment (J) will make an important
in use in the Community do not in general allow people            contribution towards this goal;
on the move throughout the Community, to reap the
benefits of European-wide paging services and
European-wide markets;                                            Whereas consideration should be given to Council
                                                                  Directive 83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying down a
Whereas the European Conference of Postal and Tele-                procedure for the provision of information in the field of
communications administrations (CEPT) set up a special             technical standards and regulations (") and to Council
sub-working group referred to as Radio Equipment                   Decision 87/95/EEC of 22 December 1986 on stan-
Specifications Sub-Working Group 4 (RES-4) since                   dardization in the field of information technology and
transfered     to   the    European     Telecommunication         telecommunications (5);
Standards Institute (ETSI) for planning all system
aspects of a more advanced public display paging system
                                                                  Whereas it is appropriate to make use of the potential of
named European radio messaging system (Ermes);
                                                                  the Community's existing financial instruments in order
Whereas the change to a truly advanced paging system              to promote the development of the telecommunications
named Ermes being specified by the CEPT, will provide             infrastructure in the Community;
a unique opportunity           of establishing a truly
pan-European paging service;
                                                                  (') OJ No L 217, 5. 8. 1986, p. 21.
(') OJ No C 193, 31. 7. 1989, p. 8.                               (4) OJ No L 109, 26. 4. 1983, p. 8.
(2) OJ No L 298, 16. 11. 1984, p. 49.                             (5) OJ No L 36, 7. 2. 1987, p. 31.
 ---pagebreak--- 23. 2. 90                                Official Journal of the European Communities                            No C 43/7
Whereas consideration should be given to Council                   service based on terrestrial infrastructure, provided in
recommendation 87/371/EEC ('), which points out that               each of the Member States to a common specification
special attention should be paid to the urgent                     which allows persons wishing to send and/or to receive
requirement of certain users for pan-European                      an alert and/or numeric or alphanumeric messages
land-based communications and that the Commission                  anywhere within the coverage of the service in the
will in the future submit other proposals in the field of          Community;
mobile communications, including radiopaging systems;
                                                                   2.    that   the   telecommunications      administrations
                                                                   continue the cooperation within the CEPT and ETSI,
Whereas the implementation of such a policy will lead to
                                                                   particularly concerning the objectives and time schedule
closer cooperation within Europe between the public
                                                                   set out in the Annex for the completion of the specifi-
telecommunications administrations and the recognized
                                                                   cations and service implementation of the pan-European
private operating agencies offering public mobile tele-
                                                                   land-based public radio paging system;
communications services, hereinafter referred to as
'telecommunications administrations';                              3.    that the telecommunications administrations plan
                                                                   for a gradual evolution from existing public paging
Whereas a favourable opinion has been delivered by the             systems to the pan-European land-based public radio
Senior      Officials     Group    on    Telecommunications        paging system so as to ensure a transition which meets
(SOG-T), on the basis of the detailed recommendations              the needs of users, telecommunications administrations
drawn up by the Analysis and Forecasting Group (GAP)               and manufacturers;
which provide a strategic basis for the development of
public mobile communications in the Community with a               4.    that Member State Governments and telecommuni-
view to enabling European users on the move to                     cations    administrations    complete    the    technical
communicate efficiently and economically ( 2 );                    arrangements for the implementation of the means of
                                                                   call routing and processing, so that tone, numeric and
Whereas on the basis of the detailed recommendations               alphanumeric messages can be sent from anywhere in the
drawn up by the SOG-T, the Commission recommended                  Community, to a paging receiver anywhere in the
that CEPT should reach an agreement by 1990, related               geographical coverage of the Ermes service by January
to a more advanced code and a common radio interface               1992;
in order to introduce a European service as soon as                5.    that the Commission takes appropriate initiatives,
possible afterwards;                                               within the application of existing Directives, to
                                                                   encourage the completion of the specifications and the
Whereas favourable opinions on these recommendations               implementation of the pan-European land-based public
have been delivered by the telecommunications adminis-             radio paging system, within the time schedule set out in
trations, and by CEPT;                                             the Annex;
Whereas the envisaged measures will allow the economic             6.    that the Community's financial instruments take
benefit and rapidly increasing market potential of public          this recommendation into account within the framework
display paging to be fully realised in the Community;              of their interventions, particularly as regards capital
                                                                   investments required for the implementation of the infra-
Whereas the Treaty has not provided the necessary                  structure for the pan-European land-based public radio
                                                                   paging system, and that the Community's technological
powers to this end,
                                                                   research and development programmes do likewise as
                                                                   regards the development of the required technological
HEREBY RECOMMENDS:                                                 base;
                                                                   7.    that   the   telecommunications      administrations
1.    that      the    telecommunications       administrations    prepare and sign by January 1990 at the latest a memo-
implement with due respect to Community law the                    randum of understanding on the implementation of
detailed recommendations as described in the Annex                 pan-European land-based public radio paging;
concerning         the     coordinated      introduction     of
pan-European land-based pan-European radio paging                  8.    that Member State Governments inform the
service in the Community. For the purposes of this                 Commission at the end of each year, from the end of
recommendation, a pan-European land-based public                   1989 onwards, of the measures taken and problems
radio paging service shall mean a public radio paging              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-
(') OJ No L 196, 17. 7. 1987, p. 81.
(2) Proposals by the Analysis and Forecasting Group (GAP) for      communications (SOG-T) set up by the Council on 4
    the coordination introduction of public mobile communi-        November 1983; and that the European Parliament be
    cations in the Community (5. 12. 1985).                        regularly informed.
 ---pagebreak--- No C 43/8                              Official J o u r n a l of the E u r o p e a n 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 M H z 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 N o 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. T o 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.
 ---pagebreak--- 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.
 ---pagebreak--- 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
                                                                                          Year/Months
                                                     1988        !989        1990       1991        1992        1993       1994       1995
                                                 J MM J SN J MMJ S N J MM J S N J M M J S N J MM J S N J MMIJ S N J M M J S N J MMJ S N
                                                 F A J A O D F A j A O D F A J AO D F A J A o D F A J A O D F A J A o D FA J A O D F A J A O D
 A. Service and facilities
 B. Radio subsystem decision
 C. Completion of all ETSs
                                                                1
 D. Start of service                                                                            1
 E. Percentage of the population
                                                                1 i
    covered
    30 % coverage                                               | |                                   1•
    60 % coverage                                                                                        1
                                                                                                             •' •
    80 % coverage
                                                                         _J
                                                                                                           \
                                                                                                                     "
                                                                                                                        1• •
                                                                                                                             1  '