Sophia Antipolis, 16 October 2017

ETSI and ERTICO – ITS Europe organized the sixth eCall TESTFEST event, which took place from 9 to 13 October 2017, in Kranj, Slovenia. This event was hosted by SINTESIO in cooperation with Iskratel, the administration of the Republic of Slovenia for Civil Protection and disaster Relief (URSZR) and Telekom Slovenije
Interoperability and eCall service harmonization are critical challenges to be taken into account for the successful deployment and operation of the eCall service. Slovenia is among the first European countries to implement the eCall solution.

Over a hundred of public safety experts attended the event. The experts, mainly from the fields of development engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics, and related sciences, came from nearly 40 companies in 15 different countries in America, Asia and EU. ERTICO – ITS Europe, a public-private partnership of 120 companies and organizations promoting and deploying Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) in Europe, strives for a safer, smarter, and cleaner mobility, regardless of their social, cultural, or geographical situation.

eCall is based on the European established 112 emergency number service. The European Parliament requires all new type of vehicle be equipped with eCall technology from April 2018. eCall is based on built-in sensors which are automatically triggered in the event of a collision or an accident. It is anticipated that the introduction of this system in the European Union will reduce the number of road transport fatalities by 2,500 per year.

The eCall TESTFEST is an event dedicated to trialing the interoperability of eCall devices by different manufacturers and vendors. This event was also important to review the status of the I_HeERO project, and to test participants’ technical development activities and policy aspects, such as first experiences in the application of the solution, regulation in the area concerned, and the development of the new generation of mobile networks”, according to Jacob Bangsgaard, CEO of ERTICO – ITS Europe.