eCall PSAPs Expert Group achieves consensus and results

Creation date: 20 December 2007

Group meets twice in 2007 to pursue common positions.

The eCall PSAPs Expert Group had two fruitful meetings in 2007 which progressed eCall activities key to Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). The Group was established to find common positions from the European PSAP representatives on the operational requirements of eCall, as well as solutions to achieve efficient implementation.

The Group met twice this year. In April, in a meeting with automotive manufacturers and the eCall Driving Group, the PSAP experts reached consensus on the contents of the Minimum Set of Data to feed the standardisation procedure at CEN. The Group also agreed on the importance of a harmonised Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) structure in Europe, and the necessity of a VIN decoder to extract the necessary information from the VIN.

The Group also discussed the possible increase of the PSAPs workload due to eCalls. Bearing in mind that the percentage of calls which don’t require emergency assistance is important, based on the estimations from existing private services in Europe and the US,  the number of eCalls does not seem unbearable by the PSAPs. In any case, the introduction of the eCall discriminator allows the possibility of including dedicated filtering PSAP1, if desired.

The second meeting PSAP Working Group meeting in November focused on the discussion of the draft operational requirements produced by CEN. The Group achieved consensus on relevant issues, such as the necessity of having call-back functionality. PSAPs experts agreed that they prefer an embedded solution, as they have no confidence on a solution based on nomadic devices. They also agreed that standardisation should progress as soon as possible in order to start the upgrade of their systems. The meeting also included a position paper from the French delegation that was presented and discussed.

The eCall PSAPs Expert Group has shown its usefulness to address problems related to PSAPs and achieve consensus. It welcomes further participation, so Member States are encouraged to nominate representatives to this Group to keep the momentum going into 2008 and beyond.

For more information, please visit the eCall Toolbox or contact info@esafetysupport.org