The European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), which entered into force on 20 December 2018, must be transposed into national legislation by EU Member States by 21 December 2020.
This mean that “Any car radio receiver integrated in a new vehicle of category M1 which is made available on the market for sale or rent in the Union from 21 December 2020 shall comprise a receiver capable of receiving and reproducing at least radio services provided via digital terrestrial radio broadcasting.”
The regulation, which applies to all EU member states, regardless of the status of DAB in each country, also gives countries the opportunity to introduce new legislation regarding consumer receivers.
Several EU countries, including Germany, the UK and Italy have already introduced regulations to implement the EECC directive into national legislation.
- In Germany, all radio receivers in new cars will be required to include digital radio capabilities from 21 December 2020.
- In the UK, all radios fitted in new passenger cars will come with digital radio as standard from 2021 following new regulations passed through Parliament.
- In Italy, all new (consumer and automotive) radio receivers sold from January 2020 onwards are required to include DAB+.
In France, a proposal requiring all new car radios to include digital radio capabilities, in line with the EECC deadline, is being reviewed by parliament this month. Last week, Spain published a draft of its Telecoms Regulation, which also complies with the EECC.
Other countries including The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Greece, Czech Republic, Poland and Malta have all initiated procedures to implement the EECC into national legislation.
President of WorldDAB, Patrick Hannon, said: “The EU decision to mandate that all new car radios should be able to receive digital terrestrial broadcasts has transformed the prospects for DAB+ radio in Europe. A growing number of countries are transposing the directive into national law. We urge countries that have yet to implement the EECC to act imminently and help ensure that motorists in all EU Member States benefit from the advantages of digital radio – greater choice, clearer audio and enhanced data services”.
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I have read the EU directive. It does not mention the word DAB or DAB+ but use the words digital radio instead.
It should be noted that digital radio is used by mobile broadband as well as DRM.
Many new radios use software designed radios. DRM and DAB+ signal processing are identical except for some parameter settings. The major difference between the DAB+ and DRM is just the filter used to select the frequency the user wishes to listen to.
DAB+ is the highest frequency used by broadcast radio and as a result has the smallest coverage area. DRM will work at many lower frequencies, extending the coverage area and minimises the size of black spots.