Australia introduced regulations allowing the country’s road traffic authorities to roll out intelligent transport systems (ITS) which enable vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-person or vehicle-to-infrastructure communications.

The new regulations allow the 5.9GHz band to be used for ITS in Australia and are consistent with ITS arrangements in major vehicle markets including the US and EU.

Following an industry consultation, the Australian Communications and Media Authority announced the Radiocommunications (ITS) Class Licence 2017, which supports the use of complying wireless technologies and devices.

“ITS are expected to make roads smarter, safer and cleaner through the use of communications technologies,” said ACMA acting chair James Cameron.

He said harmonising Australia’s ITS arrangements with wider global developments means Australian motorists are more likely to enjoy the benefits of connected vehicles as they become available.

Cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) standards were finalised by the 3GPP in 2017 to enable communication between vehicles, other road users and their wider surroundings including traffic signals and roadworks.

Collaborations expand
Several cross-industry groups are in the process of developing applications based on the protocols. The groups are working with government agencies around the world to move trials forward.

In March 2017 HKT, Huawei, Qualcomm and the Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) established the Smart Mobility Consortium to bring C-V2X technologies to Hong Kong. The group said at the time it planned to approach the government for trial access to the 5.9GHz spectrum band.

A group of six automotive, telecoms and tech companies – Continental, Ericsson, Nissan, NTT Docomo, OKI and Qualcomm – last week announced plans to conduct the first field trials of C-V2X technology in Japan to demonstrate the enhanced range, reliability and latency of direct communications using the 5GHz band.

In the US in November 2017 Qualcomm, Nokia, Ford and AT&T teamed up to trial C-V2X technology. LG and Qualcomm previously announced plans to establish a joint research centre in South Korea to develop 5G and C-V2X technologies.