Harmonized Standards: The Future for Telecommunications Apparatus in Europe

The European Radio and Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (R&TTE) Directive 99/5/EC that went into effect on April 8, 2000, will have far-reaching effects on the global harmonization of telecommunications standards.

Evolutionary development of these standards has been driven over the past 15 years by liberalization of the telecommunications networks and operators. Standards for network connectivity had previously been driven by the monopolistic network operators. Design specifications for all products were based on the network specifications produced by the operators, and there was very little room to maneuver. Then, liberalization opened up opportunities for new technologies and new standards. However, transferring the responsibility for approvals to notified bodies was only partly successful in stimulating the production of harmonized standards.

Telecommunications Terminal Equipment (TTE) Directive 98/13/EEC gave industry a push in the right direction by reducing the technical requirements to simply interwork with the network, thus minimizing the number of arguably unnecessary and unreasonable requirements. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) was born in 1988. Its creation was the springboard for production of numerous standards and recommendations that have been widely accepted outside Europe.

What Happens Next?

The R&TTE Directive has arrived when new technology developments in both radio and wired telecommunications are booming. Opportunities to develop systems and services that are largely independent of the network operators but that make use of their bearer services for voice and data over IP, radio LANs, such as Bluetooth, cable modems, and other high-data-rate devices for domestic and business use, are virtually unlimited.

However, the European Commission (EC) has determined that there is no need for technical requirements against which to assess wired telecommunications products. The EC considers these products to be commodities like TV sets and toasters. Thus, the only requirements deemed essential for wired telecommunications apparatus are the safety and EMC requirements already largely harmonized under the IEC and CISPR standards. Further work on the technical bases for regulation (TBRs) has been suspended just when the TBRs were becoming widely accepted as the basis for type approvals around the world.

The situation regarding radio apparatus is clearer. A number of TBRs and ETSI radio standards are being retained under the R&TTE Directive because there are essential radio requirements. However, the scope of these standards is being reduced to encompass only requirements relating to the efficient use of the frequency spectrum. Table I presents the known status of the TBRs under the R&TTE Directive.

Consequences of the Removal of Network Standards

R&TTE Directive 99/5/EC Article 3.3 states: "In accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 15 (of the Directive), the Commission may decide that apparatus within certain equipment classes or apparatus of particular types shall be so constructed that

Where does this leave product developers and regulatory engineers? The R&TTE Directive requires all network operators to publish interface specifications for their networks. In theory, this provides all that is necessary for designing apparatus that will satisfactorily interwork with the network. However, all interfaces designed to comply with the harmonized European Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) requirements are not the same; nonmandatory guidelines that cover national differences abound.

The situation with respect to legacy networks, such as the analog public switched telephone network (PSTN), is even worse. A harmonized standard that all countries could accept took 10 years to produce, yet it is being abandoned within two years of its adoption! The national network differences are such that full interworking with the PSTN in one country will almost certainly not result in full interworking elsewhere, because of variations in network tones, ringing signals, and dc characteristics.

Some European network operators will probably impose more onerous procurement requirements on suppliers to protect their networks, which once were protected by means of formal standards and approvals. This is the case for both fixed and radio telecommunications networks. While this will not prevent suppliers from placing their products on the market, it will exclude them from the lucrative Public Telecoms Operator sales lists that can make or break a manufacturer. The published interface requirements for the United Kingdom and Germany bear a startling resemblance to the old national network standards.

A move is afoot within the European standards-making community to retain and, where possible, to maintain the wired telecommunications standards. It has been prompted by concerns that the expertise upon which the standards have been based will be redeployed and that, when the time comes, as it surely will, a nucleus of standards specialists will no longer be available for future work. This is particularly the case with analog networks that have developed on a national basis. Even the TBR 21 requirements were far from harmonized. Digital networks that have grown up around the telecommunications standardization requirements of the International Telecommunication Union are likely to continue to follow those recommendations.

Europe is now turning away from harmonization of wired telecommunications networks within the continent and away from countries that have been accepting reports and certificates endorsed by the European notified bodies. This situation will be exacerbated by the need to test products in these countries at significant additional expense, brought about by the unlikelihood that a laboratory test report not endorsed by a notified body will be accepted in the future.

Conclusion

The process of producing standards generally acceptable around the world as a step toward harmonization in telecommunications has been stopped in its tracks by the R&TTE Directive. This directive has removed requirements for formal assessment of wired telecommunication interfaces and, with them, the need for properly maintained standards. Network operators are reacting by imposing heavier commercial requirements on manufacturers seeking to supply products endorsed by the fixed and radio network operators.

Countries outside the European Union that have been accepting European test reports and certificates against harmonized standards are already planning to replace the harmonized European standards with national requirements. This will further damage efforts to bring about global harmonization of telecommunications standards. The only exception to this trend is in the area of radio communication standards, notably, global system mobile (GSM) and the next generation of radio LAN and mobile communications requirements.

Andy Salisbury is technical director for TTA Communications Ltd. (Yate, S. Glocs, UK). He can be e-mailed at andy.salisbury@ttauk.com.