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Crazy proliferation of Euro toll standards

Trucks in Europe may have to be equipped to handle ten different systems for electronic tolling, substantially increasing their cost,

Trucks in Europe could have to be equipped to handle ten different types of electronic tolling system, such is the prolixity of European standards on electronic tolling.

The warning came from Jozef Cornu, Chairman of ISTAG, which advises the EC on ICT strategy, and was made at the annual form of MEDEA+, the pan-European microelectronics R&D programme.

Cornu pointed out that the current lack of standardisation in Europe meant that the Eurostar train had to be able to handle six different types of signalling systems, adding substantially to cost.

Whatever next? When the EC mandates, as it undoubtedly will one day, that we all have to have an ID chip implanted in our buttocks, will this have to be done ten times to comply with the standards of different countries’ readers?

Whatever happened to the wise old gentlemen who formulated GSM? Can’t they be brought back to save us all from electronic anarchy?

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