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Traffic Message Channel, or TMC, is a technology for delivering traffic and travel information to drivers. It is digitally coded using the FM-RDS system on conventional FM radio broadcasts. It allows silent delivery of high quality accurate, timely and relevant information, in the language chosen by the user and without interrupting normal services. Services, both public and commercial, are now operational in many European countries. When data is integrated directly into a navigation system, this gives the driver the option to take an alternative route to avoid the traffic incident.
Each traffic incident is sent as a TMC message. One message consists of an event code and a a location code in addition to time details.
The message is coded according to the Alert C standard. It contains a list of about 1460 events which can be translated by a TMC receiver into the language of the user.
Location code tables are maintained on a national level and assign numbers to locations on the road network.
The source of traffic information is typically police, traffic cameras, loops, Floating Car Data and others.
Following countries provide a TMC service:
A TMC service is available in Austria. ORF is responsible for the free service and ASFINAG is responsible for the location tables.
A free service is available in the Flanders region. It is provided by Verkeerscentrum Antwerpen and broadcasted by VRT.
In the southern part of Belgium, Wallonia, a free test service is broadcasted by RTBF. The service is in collaboration with TMC4U. In Belgium Tritel publishes location tables.
Currently, there is no regular service in the Czech Republic. A test service, coordinated by CEDA, was carried out in 2003. Regular broadcasting with coverage limited to certain areas (Prague, ...) are to be launched in mid 2005. CEDA is also responsible for the location tables. ATT is the planned service provider of the free service.
A TMC service is available in Denmark. DRD is responsible for the free service and Vejdirectoratet is responsible for the location tables.
A free service is available in Finland. Both the service and the location tables are provided by the FINNRA, the Finnish national road administration.
Both a free public service and a commercial service are available in France.
The free service is provided by the motorway operators and provides information on their toll-roads. The toll-road operators are AREA, ASF, ATMB, Cofiroute, ESCOTA, SANEF, SAPN, SAPRR, SFTRF and SMTPC. The TMC data is on the 107.7 traffic channel so it can only be received along the motorways.
The commercial service is provided by Mediamobile. It is a partnership between TDF, Renault, Trafficmaster and Cofiroute. The service, branded Visionaute is transmitted on the frequencies of France Inter. It includes the information off the motorways but also on Paris congestion. The service was first open but it is now a pay-service, but it is not encrypted: by using a different location table number they can restrict the use. This method is TMC Forum 's Interim encryption method. They have about 60000 customers and the service costs currently ?61 per car. The service can be received nationally.
Location tables are released by the government agency SETRA and includes about 20000 locations.
In Germany both a public and a commercial service are available. The public service is an open, free service that can be received by the public radio stations.
The other service is a pay service provided by T-Mobile Traffic, which is part of Deutsche Telekom. The service went life from March 2004 across Germany. It is an encrypted service, based on the conditional access specifications made by the TMC Forum.
BAST, Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen, is releasing location tables. The current version is 3.0, which is on air since January 2004. It includes 28.000 locations and is backwards compatible with previous version which had 21.000 locations.
A TMC service is available in Italy, but only in the northern part. CCISS is providing the service and Mizar Mediaservice is releasing location tables.
A TMC service is available in Norway. Statens Vegvesen is releasing location tables.
A TMC service is available in Spain. Location tables are coming from DGT.
A free service is available in Sweden. SNRA is responsible for the free service and for making the location tables which contains about 9800 locations.
Regarding the transmission, Sweden is divided into 8 broadcasting zones in order not to transmit traffic information that is not usefull at that location. They cover the European, national and major county highways and contain information about traffic accidents, road works and road weather. The service is broadcasted on Swedish Broadcasting Corporation P3 radio station and cover 98 percent of Sweden.
A TMC service is available in Switzerland. The broadcaster is SRG SSR idée suisse or Swiss Broadcasting Corporation who transmits TMC on FM chain 1 (general, services) and FM chain 3 (pop/rock) all over Switzerland. It is Viasuisse, a daughter company of it, that operates the service.
B+S Ingenieur (Bundesamt fur Strassen) makes the location tables. Version 5 is on air from September 2004. It is backward compatible with version 4.5 as most changes are additions.
The service provider TMC4U is delivering a TMC service in The Netherlands. Currently it is free, but they plan a pay-service including local information. Location tables come from AVV Transport Research Centre and are supplied by TIC Nederland. TMC4U is a collaboration between Siemens and ANWB. The transmissions are on the radio channels of SkyRadio, Classic FM, Radio 1 and Radio 3.
A second TMC service provider is Vialis. They are transmitting on the FM channels of Noordzee and Radio 538.
The private company ITIS Holding is providing a commercial TMC service in the United Kingdom. The price of the service can be included in the price of the car or of the navigation system. ITIS is also responsible for the location tables.
It is also planned in Portugal, Hungary and the rest of Italy. In Ireland and Luxemburg no service is currently planned. In Poland a private radio station did some tests but General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKIA) didn't decide yet on a real implementation.
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