NGMN calls on EC to rethink connected car technology

An organisation representing telecoms network operators has warned European lawmakers that their vision for the development of cooperative ITS (C-ITS) risks being too narrow. In a letter to European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the board of the NGMN Alliance highlights a key piece of EC legislation which will determine the technologies used for connected vehicles – and urges the inclusion of cellular-V2X (C-V2X) on the list. “Despite the EC’s stated commitment to technology neutrality, we
December 12, 2018 Read time: 2 mins
An organisation representing telecoms network operators has warned European lawmakers that their vision for the development of cooperative ITS (C-ITS) risks being too narrow.


In a letter to 1690 European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker, the board of the NGMN Alliance highlights a key piece of EC legislation which will determine the technologies used for connected vehicles – and urges the inclusion of cellular-V2X (C-V2X) on the list.

“Despite the EC’s stated commitment to technology neutrality, we are very concerned about the progressing Delegated Act,” the NGMN letter says.

“At the current time, it rules out the most recent technology, C-V2X, favouring a specific and single-purpose Wi-Fi based technology path, ITS-G5, which has no relationship to 5G technology and no evolutionary path towards compatibility with future 5G based C-ITS systems generations.”

This will preclude “the evolution to 5G for connected cars”, it warns. “Limiting C-ITS deployment to ITS-G5 would imperil the European Union automotive industry’s ability to compete in today’s global and evolving technological marketplace. This places Europe at a technical and economic disadvantage compared with other regions of the world including China and the US, where C-V2X is emerging as a strong technology candidate for C-ITS.”

The NGMN board says that Delegated Act adoption “should not be rushed” and adds that C-V2X is not only able to enhance safety features for vehicles, but also supports use cases for vulnerable road users such as cyclists.

“NGMN has investigated and concluded that C-V2X technology is superior to 6781 IEEE 802.11p standards, technically, economically, and eco-system wise, and can well satisfy the basic safety applications,” the letter goes on.

The board believes its favoured technology has a better communication range, latency and scalability and “has a natural evolution path to future advanced applications by updating current networks to 5G”.

Related Content

  • October 24, 2017
    Outsourcing security weakness for Sweden’s driver and vehicle data
    The security of driver and vehicle data hit the headlines this summer in Sweden and its authorities are still dealing with the fallout. David Crawford reports. epercussions from Sweden’s vehicle data outsourcing scandal continue to reverberate. Transportstyrelsen, the government’s transport agency, came under fire this summer for risking the personal security of over five million motorists by failing to implement full security checks on personnel in other countries to whom individual work packages could
    Read More
  • October 23, 2017
    Qualcomm launches cellular V2X chipset for connected vehicles
    Qualcomm Technologies’ 9150 C-V2X chipset, is a cellular, vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) commercial solution for autonomous driving. Based on the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 14 specifications for PC5-based direct communications, it is anticipated to be available for commercial sampling in the second half of 2018.
    Read More
  • May 31, 2013
    Navigating a path towards greater safety
    Eric Sampson takes a look at why the European Union’s eCall system is taking rather longer to arrive than it should. There’s an old story about the person who asked an Irishman for directions and after much thought he responded: “If you’re going there from here it would be better to start from somewhere else.” This came to mind when I was recently reflecting on eCall and wondering when it will come - some stakeholders say the answer is never. So despite years of workshops and discussions, eCall is still not
    Read More
  • August 7, 2018
    Motown morphs into Mobility City
    Detroit was once a byword for urban decay – but ITS America recently held its annual meeting there. This gave David Arminas a chance to assess how fast Motor City is moving down the road to recovery. Motor City, as Detroit is still called, was on its financial knees only five short years ago. The future looked bleak as the city and greater urban area bled jobs and population. It was on 18 July 2013 that Motown, as Detroit is also known, filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy protection, the
    Read More

Highlighted Content