CELEX: 51989PC0166(02)
Language: en
Date: 1989-06-05
Title: PROPOSAL FOR A COUNCIL DIRECTIVE ON THE FREQUENCY BANDS TO BE RESERVED FOR THE COORDINATED INTRODUCTION OF PAN-EUROPEAN LAND-BASED PUBLIC RADIO PAGING IN THE COMMUNITY

N o C 193/12                            Official Journal of the European Communities                                   31. 7. 89
                                                            FIGURE 1
                Schedule for the completion of pan-European paging specification by the CEPT and service provision,
                                             by the telecommunications administrations
                                                                                      Year/ month
                                                                                 MM J         MM      MM        MM       MM
   A. SERVICE AND FACILITIES
   B. SYSTEM SPECIFICATION
   C. RADIO SUBSYSTEM
      a) Decide Subsystem
      b) Optimization
   D. RECEIVER AND TRANSMITTER
      SPECIFICATIONS
   E. START OF SERVICE
   F. PERCENTAGE OF THE POPULATION
      COVERED
      30% COVERAGE
      60% COVERAGE
      80% COVERAGE
                                                                                                  lllllllllmTifl
              Proposal for a Council Directive on the frequency bands to be reserved for the coordinated
                      introduction of pan-European land-based public radio paging in the Community
                                                COM(89) 166 final — SYN 193
                                      (Submitted by the Commission on 12 May 1989)
                                                          (89/C 193/03)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                            Whereas the resources offered by modern telecommuni-
                                                                    cations networks should be utilized to the full for the
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European               economic development of the Community;
Economic Community, and in particular Article 100A
thereof,
                                                                    Whereas radio paging services are the only low cost means
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                  of alerting and/or sending messages to users on the move;
In cooperation with the European Parliament,
                                                                    Whereas radio paging services depend on the allocation
                                                                    and availability of frequency bands in order to transmit and
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social             receive between fixed-base stations and radio paging
Committee,                                                          receivers respectively;
Whereas Council recommendation 84/549/EEC (!) calls
for the introduction of services on the basis of a common           Whereas the frequencies and land-based public radio
harmonized approach in the field of telecommunications;             paging systems currently in use in the Community vary
                                                                    widely and do not allow all users on the move to reap the
                                                                    benefits of European wide services and European wide
(!) OJ No L 298, 16. 11. 1984, p. 49.                               markets;
 ---pagebreak--- 31. 7. 89                                  Official Journal of the European Communities                              No C 193/13
Whereas the change-over to the more advanced radio                    HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
paging system codenamed European Radio Messaging
System (ERMES) being specified by the European Con-                                              Article 1
ference of Postal and Telecommunications Adminis-
trations (CEPT), will provide a unique opportunity of                 For the purposes of this Directive, pan-European land-
establishing a truly pan-European radio paging service;               based public radio paging service shall mean a public radio
                                                                      paging service based on a terrestrial infrastructure,
Whereas CEPT has identified the unpaired frequency band               provided in each of the Member States to a common
169.4 to 169.8 MHz as the most suitable band for public               specification which allows persons wishing to send and/or
radio paging;                                                         receive an alert and/or numeric or alphanumeric messages
Whereas parts of the frequency band are being used or are             anywhere within the coverage of the service in the
intended for use by certain Member States for other radio             Community.
services;
Whereas the progressive availability of the full range of the                                    Article 2
frequency band set out above will be indispensable for the            1. Member States shall ensure that the band 169.6 to
establishment of a truly pan-European radio paging                    169.8 MHz is reserved exclusively and is made available for
service;                                                              use by the pan-European land-based public radio paging
Whereas the implementation of Council recommendation                  service by 1 January 1992.
...on the coordinated introduction of pan-European land-
                                                                      2. The Commission, after consulting Member States,
based public radio paging in the Community will ensure the
                                                                      shall take a decision defining a further block of 200 kHz
start of a pan-European system by 1 January 1992 at the
                                                                      within the band 169 to 170 MHz by 1 January 1990 atfhe
latest;
                                                                      latest to be reserved exclusively for the pan-European land-
Whereas, on the basis of present technological and market             based public radio paging service.
trends, it appears realistic to envisage the exclusive
occupation of the 169.4 to 169.8 MHz frequency bands by               3. Member States shall ensure that the 200 kHz block of
the pan-European public radio paging system by 1 January              frequencies defined in paragraph 2 is made available for the
1995;                                                                 exclusive use of the pan-European land-based public radio
                                                                      paging sevice by 1 January 1995.
Whereas Council Directive 86/361/EEC of 24 July 1986 on
the initial stage of the mutual recognition of type-approval
                                                                                                 Article 3
for telecommunications terminal equipment (*) will allow
the rapid establishment of common conformity speci-                   The Commission shall report to the Council on the
fications for the pan-European land-based public radio                implementation of this Directive not later than the end of
paging system;                                                        1996.
Whereas the report on public mobile communication
drawn up by the Analysis and Forecasting Group (GAP) for                                         Article 4
the Senior Officials Group of Telecommunications (SOG-
T), strongly recommends that administrations reach an                 1. Member States shall bring into force the provisions
agreement to use the same radio frequencies as a                      necessary to comply with this Directive by 1 January 1990
precondition for pan-European public radio paging ( 2 );              for Article 2, paragraph 1 and by 1 January 1993 for
                                                                      Article 2, paragraph 3. They shall forthwith inform the
Whereas favourable opinions on this report have been                  Commission thereof.
delivered by the telecommunications administrations and
by CEPT;                                                              The provisions adopted pursuant to the first subparagraph
                                                                      shall make express reference to this Directive.
Whereas radio paging is a particularly spectrum-efficient
communications method for alerting and/or sending                     2. Member States shall communicate to the Commission
messages to users on the move,                                        the text of the provisions of national law which they adopt
                                                                      in the field governed by this Directive.
(!) OJ No L 217, 5. 8. 1986, p. 21.
(2) Proposals by the Analysis and Forecasting Group (GAP) for the                                Article 5
    Coordinated Introduction of Public Mobile Communications
    in the Community of 5 December 1985.                              This Directive is addressed to the Member States.