Motorola Inc.’s European Paging Subscriber Division said Deutsche Funkruf Gesellschaft of Germany plans to deploy a FLEX-based paging network this summer, breaking from European Union recommendations for using a different paging protocol.
Operators in Russia and other Eastern European states are evaluating the FLEX protocol as well.
Europe is a hotbed for wireless telephony, but the paging industry has lagged for several reasons. Many telecom operators do not support the EU’s suggested technology standard: European Radio Messaging Service. Unlike the EU’s recommended standards for wireless telephony, Global System for Mobile communications and Digital Cellular System 1800, the ERMES paging standard has not fared well.
Analysts say ERMES has interference and system robustness problems. Also, slow paging growth is attributed to the inversely successful mobile telephony market. From an economics standpoint, opportunity in cellular and personal communications services has outweighed that of paging.
The tide in paging is changing.
At the recent European Public Paging Association annual conference in Nice, France, industry delegates voted on a number of issues. Seventy-four percent supported the statement, “Individual operators should be allowed to choose,” technology standards, said Motorola. Operators from the southern part of Europe and Eastern Europe voted 92 percent and 75 percent, respectively, for freedom of choice in standards.
In February, FCN of St. Petersburg, Russia, announced intentions to launch a FLEX-based system. Operators in Poland, Ukraine and a number of Baltic states currently are testing FLEX systems and could launch commercial services in the next few months.
Paging growth rates across Eastern Europe, including Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic states, are high, though penetration is still quite low, said Frank Lloyd, the recently appointed head of Motorola’s Messaging Systems Products Group.
In France, the young adult market is being targeted by France Telecom Group with its Tattoo product, a one-way POCSAG-based device.
“It appears increasingly that EU-based regulators will recognize FLEX as a valuable addition to the range of technologies available to European mobile communications operators,” stated Motorola, which pioneered FLEX and has licensed the high-speed protocol to more than 24 countries worldwide.
The majority of the operators at the EPPA conference said they would deploy FLEX- or ReFLEX-based systems if regulations permitted, according to Motorola.
ReFLEX is a two-way protocol for text messaging.
