CELEX: 51990PC0032(02)
Language: en
Date: 1990-02-07
Title: REVISED 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

23. 2. 90                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                No C 43/11
             Revised proposal for a Council Directive on the frequency bands to be reserved for toe coor-
                dinated introduction of pan-European land-based public radio paging in die Community ( l )
                                               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 43/08)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,                         Whereas parts of the frequency band are being used or
                                                                 are intended for use by certain Member States for other
Having regard to the Treaty establishing, the European            radio services;
Economic Community, and in particular Article 100a
thereof,                                                         Whereas the progressive availability of the full range of
                                                                 the frequency band set out above will be indispensable
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,               for the establishment of a truly pan-European radio
                                                                 paging service;
In cooperation with the European Parliament,
                                                                 Whereas some flexibility will be needed in order to take
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and                 account of different frequency requirements in different
Social Committee,                                                Member States; it will be necessary to ensure that such
                                                                 flexibility does not slow down the expansion of a
                                                                 pan-European system;
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 coordination procedures will have to be estab-
                                                                 lished between neighbouring countries as required;
Whereas the resources offered by modern telecommuni-
cations networks should be utilized to the full for the          Whereas the implementation of Council recommendation
economic development of the Community;                           . . . on the coordinated introduction of pan-European
                                                                 land-based public radio paging in the Community will
Whereas radio paging services are the only low cost              ensure the start of a pan-European system by 1 January
means of alerting and/or sending messages to users on             1992 at the latest;
the move;
                                                                 Whereas on the basis of present technological and
Whereas radio paging services depend on the allocation           market trends, it appears realistic to envisage the desig-
and availability of frequency bands in order to transmit         nation fo the 169,4 to 169,8 MHz frequency band as the
and receive between fixed-base stations and radio paging         band from which frequencies are selected as required for
receivers respectively;                                          the implementation and expansion of a pan-European
                                                                 radio paging system;
Whereas the frequencies and land-based public radio
paging systems currently in use in the Community vary            Whereas Council Directive 86/361/EEC of 24 July 1986
widely and do not allow all users on the move to reap            on the initial stage of the mutual recognition of type
the benefits       of   European    wide services      and       approval for telecommunications terminal equipment (J)
European-wide markets;                                           will allow the rapid establishment of common conformity
                                                                 specifications for the pan-European land-based public
Whereas the change-over to the more advanced radio               radio paging system;
paging system code named European radio messaging
system (Ermes) being specified by the European
Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Adminis-             Whereas the report on public mobile communication
trations (CEPT), will provide a unique opportunity of            drawn up by the Analysis and Forecasting Group (GAP)
establishing a truly pan-European radio paging service;          for the Senior Officials Group of Telecommunications
                                                                 (SOG-T), strongly recommends that administrations
                                                                 reach an agreement to use the same radio frequencies as
Whereas CEPT has identified the unpaired frequency               a precondition for pan-European public radio paging ( 4 );
band 169,4 to 169,8 M H z as the most suitable band for
public radio paging;
                                                                 O OJ No L 217, 5. 8. 1986, p. 21.
                                                                 (4) Proposals by the Analysis and Forecasting Group (GAP) for
O OJ No C 193, 31. 7. 1989, p. 12.                                    the Coordinated Introduction of Public Mobile Communi-
O OJ No L 298, 16. 11. 1984, p. 49.                                   cations in the Community (5. 12. 1985).
 ---pagebreak--- No C 43/12                          Official Journal of the European Communities                               23. 2. 90
Whereas favourable opinions on this report have been          for the pan-European land-based public radio paging
delivered by the telecommunications administrations and       service by 1 January 1992 at the latest.
by the CEPT;
                                                              Member States shall ensure that plans are prepared as
                                                              quickly as possible to enable the pan-European
Whereas radio paging is a particularly spectrum efficient
                                                              land-based public radio paging service to occupy the
communications method for alerting and/or sending
                                                              whole of the band 169,4 to 169,8 M H z according to
messages to users on the move,
                                                              commercial demand.
HAS ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:                                                            Article 3
                                                              The Commission shall report to the Council on the
                        Article 1                             implementation of this Directive not later than the end
For the purposes of this Directive, pan-European              of 1996.
land-based public radio paging service shall mean a
public radio paging service based on a terrestrial infra-                              Article 4
structure, provided in each of the Member States to a
                                                               1.   Member States shall bring into force the provisions
common specification which allows persons wishing to
                                                              necessary to comply with this Directive not later than
send and/or receive an alert and/or numeric or alpha-
                                                               1 July 1991. They shall forthwith inform the Commission
numeric messages anywhere within the coverage of the
                                                              thereof.
service in the Community.
                                                              The provisions adopted pursuant to the first
                        Article 2                             subparagraph shall make express reference to this
                                                              Directive.
Member States shall designate on a priority and
protected basis, four channels within the band 169,4 to       2.    Member States shall communicate to the
169,8 MHz preferably:                                         Commission the text of the provisions of national law
— 169,6 MHz,                                                  which they adopt in the field governed by this Directive.
— 169,65 MHz,
                                                                                       Article 5
— 169,7 MHz,
— 169,75 MHz                                                  This Directive is addressed to the Member States.