While FLEX has paraded across the globe, gaining recognition as the new global paging standard throughout the Americas, Asia and Middle East, the Motorola Inc. technology has met resistance in Europe, where members of the European Union and other nations-by virtue of certain political and legislative expectations-have supported an alternative and agreeably less popular technology, ERMES.
Of late, however, the door to Europe may be creaking open, and FLEX hopes to tiptoe in.
Chris Bullick, marketing director for Motorola Paging Europe, Middle East, Africa, said, “We’ll expect to see a breakthrough with an operator doing something with FLEX in either Western or Central Europe by the end of the year.”
Bullick wouldn’t mention with whom the company has discussed FLEX, noting, “It is a delicate situation. Various European operators are working behind the scenes with regulators” to introduce FLEX.
“In some cases, operators have asked to use FLEX, as in the U.K. In other countries, they haven’t yet asked, but … are operating on the basis they will be allowed,” explained Bullick. The United Kingdom licensed six ERMES (European Radio Messaging Service) paging providers in June.
“We have operators say to us, `we can’t make a business of ERMES,”‘ continued Bullick.
ERMES was slated for introduction in Europe 1992, said Ann Lynch, an analyst with the Yankee Group in Boston. Limited service did not begin until late 1995 and today only claims 1 percent to 2 percent of the paging market. The protocol transmits outbound at 6,250 bits per second on a 25 KHz channel. POCSAG still holds 90 percent of the European paging market, added Lynch.
Today, ERMES service is only available in a handful of countries.
But while the European paging industry may recognize the cost, capacity and transmission quality benefits of FLEX, some are reticent to jump in head first.
“There is a political expectation that operators in the EU will implement ERMES,” explained Bullick. Yet, “Nothing absolutely bars the use of FLEX,” he added. He added, Motorola is “not anti-ERMES but the reality is that the world has moved on.”
In 1990, the European Union issued legislation-a Directive and Resolution- that legally bound its members to clear certain frequencies for pan-European paging services. The legislation included a “recommendation that the ERMES protocol should be implemented by paging authorities to harmonize services and facilitate roaming by 1993,” said Bullick, quoting the document.
But “the legislation has lapsed,” he said, pointing to the obviously outdated wording of “paging authorities.”
Bullick said the push for ERMES is driven by a combination of EU regulators and national governments within individual countries, which so far have licensed only ERMES for new one-way paging services.
Support for ERMES “is colored by GSM … People see [GSM] as a European success story. There are people who make the mistake of putting ERMES in the same category,” said Bullick.
The issue is a cultural one, too, added Bullick. “As an American company in Europe, we want to be a good global citizen. Ramming FLEX down everyone’s throat is not being a good global citizen.
“The operators are not finding it easy to use,” Bullick continued. He said only six countries-Saudi Arabia, Hungary, Holland, Switzerland, Finland and France-are operational with ERMES. The United Kingdom and Germany have licensed ERMES, but are not yet up and running, he added. Other sources indicate ERMES has a presence in Portugal, Estonia and Hungary, as well.
In Germany, “the government was going to offer four licenses and only had three applications, which probably tells a story,” said Bullick, adding further that the licensed parties are existing operators.
“The terms of the licenses are unbelievably onerous,” he added. Government rules don’t allow licensees to implement ERMES infrastructure until 1998. Operators must run every transmitter site for at least a three-month test period to get permission to use that site, and initially are barred from running services in four of Germany’s major urban areas, added Bullick. During technology trials, ERMES experienced interference with cable TV, which is poorly shielded, said Bullick. “The reality is they won’t `recable’ 4 million homes” and EU rules do not allow ERMES to relocate to another frequency, said Bullick. Mandating that ERMES must be deployed at the same frequency is “clever for pan-European roaming,” but locks the carriers in. FLEX is not frequency specific, he noted.
Yankee Group’s Lynch said low demand for paging is a key reason ERMES has not succeeded in Europe. When state authorities controlled telecom, cellular was seen as a more lucrative service than paging. Coupled with a pent up demand for voice services, more competition was encouraged in cellular and voice services were more heavily marketed when markets opened.
In particular, when GSM was introduced, everyone jumped on that bandwagon, added Lynch.
“Paging companies (in the United States) have continued and sustained efforts to educate the market. The commitment is not there (in Europe) from the carriers so how do we expect it to take off?” continued Lynch.
Limited push button dialing capability in Europe also has inhibited paging growth, added Lynch.
