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June 3 2003 Electronic road toll systems first appeared in Europe in the 1990s on motorways operated under a concession where the toll served to finance the motorway construction and maintenance. The systems have continued to spread through Europe for regulating traffic flow and heavy vehicles regulation. Whilst current systems employed by various member countries have all operated on 5.8GHz dedicated short range communication (DSRC) systems, the systems have not been interoperable across the national borders. Citing a need to avoid continued incompatibility, the European Commission (EC) has recently agreed a proposal for a Directive paving the way for electronic tolling to use GSM/GPRS technology in conjunction with global navigation satellite systems. Under the proposed Directive, by 2012 these systems could completely displace 5.8GHz systems that have almost exclusively used GaAs technology. Strategy Analytics believes one factor driving the EC is its frustration at the tolling systems industry players’ inability over many years to agree a common 5.8GHz standard. At the same time, Strategy Analytics points to the European Commission’s
commitment to Galileo, an alternative to the US GPS system that is being
developed by Europe and will be operational by 2008, as perhaps another motive
behind this move towards displacing 5.8GHz systems.
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