Partner News: Vodafone ready to supply dedicated emergency call SIMs for cars

Date: 26 May 2008

As part of the EU Commission's eSafety initiative, aiming to decrease the death toll on roads by accelerating the rescue chain, eCall (the automatic emergency call originating from a car) an automatic and manual distress call to the 112 emergency number, which is available throughout Europe has been defined. Under the Commission’s initiative, all new vehicles in Europe are to be fitted with eCall from 2010 on. ERTICO - ITS Europe Partner Vodafone strongly supports the EU Commission’s efforts and has recently provided a public demonstration of how mobile networks can help to save lives in the event of a car accident. Vodafone has been contributing actively to the eCall standardisation process for a long time.

Based on cellular communication technologies, eCall is built around a SIM (provided by Vodafone Germany) and a GSM/UMTS modem embedded into the vehicles’ electronics. This SIM is more than just a regular SIM card. It is really a SIM chip designed to automotive industry specifications and engineered as a surface-mounted device (SMD). The eCall device containing the chip is connected to the internal sensors (e.g. the airbags), which cause an emergency call to 112 to be automatically initiated when a crash is detected. The eCall connection then serves to transport vital crash data such as GPS position and vehicle identification data to the closest public safety answering point (PSAP). The SIM’s mobile number allows the PSAP to directly contact the vehicle and its occupants, ideally enabling the PSAP to crosscheck and dispatch rescue services as required under the individual circumstances.
 
Vodafone Germany will provide the SIM chip and the mobile number together with unlimited (within reason) eCall usage throughout the car’s lifetime, to be paid for by car manufacturers, who will be charged a one-off upfront amount. Initially the SIM will be blocked for all other traffic (voice, SMS, data). This set-up does not require any relationship between Vodafone and the end customer (the buyer of the car). As the SIM has all the functionalities of a regular SIM, it can conceivably be used to offer value added services as well: bCall (breakdown calls), calls to service hotlines, telematics services, navigation and many more.

It is expected that by 2010, the eCall device will become standard equipment for all newly type approved vehicles in Europe .

For further information, please contact:

Ulrich John
Senior Marketing Manager Strategy and New Business Development
Vodafone D2 GmbH, Germany
Ulrich.john@vodafone.com
Tel. +49 (0) 211 533 6503