RT Summary 

RT is Responsible for those aspects of Global System for Mobile communications (GSM ™) standardization which are specific to Railway and Private Mobile Radio (PMR)operations (GSM-R).

The GSM-R standard implements a number of applications and requirements specific to the railway environment, which use the common GSM platform. Thirty two members of the Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer (UIC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)supporting GSM-R for their radio applications.

GSM-R has now been selected by nearly all the European railways.Eighteen railways have already signed an Agreement of Implementation (AoI) to start implementation of the essential requirements,and additional countries in Eastern Europe and around the world are backing this ETSI standard.

Supported by a group of specialists and funded by its railway and industry members,ETSI Technical Committee Railways Telecommunications is continuing the work of ETSI's former Special Mobile Group, that accomplished the original standardization of GSM-R. TC RT's main task is to maintain the specifications for the use of GSM to meet the requirements of the railways, and to update and develop the existing ETSI standards in response to relevant European Directives. This will include the use of the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) in railway applications, and its interoperability with GSM-R. In addition, first implementations have raised issues on specifications and roaming for international trains, which are currently being addressed. Work is well underway, and several Change Requests have been issued to improve the operation of the GSM-R system and to answer the needs of users.

TC RT has investigated the huge potential for the application of GSM-R world-wide and presentations were made in Europe, the US and China.

In the future, in collaboration with the railway industry, TC RT will continue to improve the GSM-R standards and to meet the developing need for harmonized international communications for trains crossing European borders. New requirements from users in Europe and world-wide will also be considered.