-- Sign up for the new EW Daily Newsletter, for latest news and products --
A chunk of radio spectrum has been reserved across Europe for smart vehicle communications systems by the European Commission.
The spectrum in the 5.9GHz band will be used to provide car-to-car and car-to-roadside links which will carry safety and traffic information.
"Today's Commission decision is a decisive step towards meeting the European goal of reducing road accidents. Getting critical messages through quickly and accurately is a must for road safety,” said Viviane Reding, EU telecoms commissioner.
The EC's aim is to provide a single EU-wide frequency band that can be used for immediate and reliable communication between cars, and between cars and roadside infrastructure. It is 30MHz of spectrum in the 5.9GHz band which will be allocated within the next six months by national authorities across Europe to road safety applications.
An example of suach a service, according to the EC, is the case of a vehicle detecting a slippery patch on a road: if it is equipped with a cooperative car-to-car communication device, it can deliver this information across the 5.9GHz band to all cars located nearby.
“We should also keep in mind that with 24% of Europeans' driving time spent in traffic jams the costs caused by congestion could reach €80bn by 2010. So clearly saving time through smart vehicles communications systems means saving money," said Reding.