Traffic Message Channel (TMC)

Traffic Message Channel (TMC) is a technology for delivering traffic and travel information to drivers. It is typically digitally coded using the FM-RDS system on conventional FM radio broadcasts. It can also be transmitted on DAB or satellite radio. It allows silent delivery of dynamic information suitable for reproduction or display in the language chosen by the user and without interrupting normal audio broadcast services. Services, both public and commercial, are now operational in many countries worldwide. When data is integrated directly into a navigation system, this gives the driver the option to take alternative routes to avoid traffic incidents.

How it works

Each traffic incident is binary-encoded and sent as a TMC message. Each message consists of an event code and a location code in addition to expected incident duration, affected extent and other details.

The message is coded according to the Alert C standard. It contains a list of up to 2048 event phrases (1402 pr 01.02.2007) which can be translated by a TMC receiver into the language of the user. Some phrases describe individual situations such as a crash, while others cover combinations of events such as a crash causing long delays.

In Europe, location code tables are maintained on a national level, assigning numerical codes to locations (typically major junctions) on the road network. Those location tables are integrated in the maps provided by in-vehicle navigation system companies such as NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas, and by vehicle manufacturers such as Volvo. In other countries such as the U.S. and Canada, private companies maintain the location tables and market TMC services commercially.

Sources of traffic information typically include police, traffic control centres, camera systems, traffic speed detectors, floating car data, winter driving reports, roadwork reports and others.

TMC-Forum is a non-profit organization. The members are service providers, receiver manufactures, car manufactures, map vendors, broadcasters (public and private), automobile clubs, public authorities and others. It is a forum to discuss traffic information related aspects. Furthermore it maintains the TMC-Standard (ISO 14819). On 11 November 2007 the TMC-Forum and the TPEG-Forum has merged into TISA (Traveller Information Services Association). TISA has taken over all TMC-Forum activities.

RDS-TMC is an extremely low-bandwidth system, with each RDS-TMC message comprising only 37 data bits sent at most 1-3 times per second, using a very basic data channel primarily designed for FM radio tuning and station name identification. Compressing entire traffic incident descriptions in multiple languages into a mere 16 bits for a location, 11 bits for an event code, plus 5 bits for an extent and a few more bits for the duration and system management might be regarded a miracle of ingenuity, whose need was dictated by constraints already set in the pre-existing RDS standard. Almost all the broadcast data bits were already taken.

Given so few bits to work with, one major design challenge of RDS-TMC was to find a way of using 16 bits (about 65000 locations) to describe an entire state or country. Such a system could not convey latitude-longitude data so easily available 25 years later with great precision using GPS. Instead RDS-TMC has to rely on the use of relatively lean location tables, pointing only to significant road junctions along defined national and regional highways. The precision of each traffic events’ location when compared to modern GPS devices can seem to be low. The user’s navigation system locates a driver to about 3 metres, but only knows that the crash is between Exit 3 and Exit 4, northbound on the motorway. This is because traffic events (accidents, congestion, burst water mains, faulty traffic lights, etc.) have to be superimposed onto the maps in users’ GPS devices by matching the reported location into the location table.

Navigation system makers may maintain that if the nearest location table point (nearest significant junction) is located some distance from the point of the crash, then the traffic event might be shown on the device as being out of place. (In reality, it is shown as being on a section of main road between two junctions.) Even if the lack of accuracy causes an error of only a short distance this could make a significant difference as to how the program in the GPS device will interpret the event in relation to the user’s planned route. For example, if there is roadwork close to a junction the position of the roadwork may be interpreted as being a short distance away. This could place the apparent roadwork on the other side of the junction. The consequence would be that the GPS device might not divert the user from the roadwork because it was assumed to not affect the route.

In fact, though, operationally, this level of detail may be exactly what is required. From the police and road authorities’ viewpoints, it may be as just much as they wish to give out. The police may not want sightseers homing in on exact crash sites. Also, road authorities and local communities do not want drivers taking shortcuts through the minor residential streets now opened up by in-vehicle navigation systems. On motorways and other limited-access roads, knowing where the crash is located to 3 meters is no help to casual drivers when road junctions are kilometers apart. On city streets, the commercial needs of navigation system users may be to cut through minor residential roads and play areas, but this is not necessarily the optimum solution from a community perspective. The fact that actual public deployments of RDS-TMC listed later in this article have rarely used more than 10% of the available locations suggests that it may be public policy as much as technology that is currently limiting the system’s precision.

In the U.S. and elsewhere, systems such as CARS already exist that could track and pinpoint event locations with accuracies of a meter, and these real-time data are already being published in XML for access by companies such as Google and TomTom. These incident reports are also being received from Google on mobile phones and handheld devices that are in vehicles already. Laws on the use of mobile devices may determine that this is potentially dangerous, but it exists and is working today. In conclusion, though, what this discussion has missed so far is that live incident reports themselves are almost always highly uncertain in terms of precise locations. But if it is assumed that these will get better, we now have technology required to provide the data. It is now up to society to regulate how much detail shall be given, and how safe it is for users to use these data in real time while they drive.

In April 2007 research about RDS-TMC was presented at the CanSecWest security conference by two Italian security researchers.

The presentation, titled Unusual Car Navigation Tricks, raised the point that RDS-TMC is a wireless cleartext protocol and showed how to build a receiver and transmitter with cheap electronics, capable of injecting false and potentially dangerous messages.

An RDS-TMC receiver is in effect a special FM radio tuner that can decode TMC data. Satellite TMC receivers utilize a dedicated data channel that is broadcast as part of the much larger broadcast digital audio channels. TMC decoding is carried out by matching event and location codes against look-up tables of phrases and locations that can be translated into audio or displayed on a Sat nav device. The look-up tables must be implemented in a service-specific database mapped to geographic routes and intersections. As with the navigation systems themselves, periodic upgrades are needed as the road system changes. These steps provide opportunities for vendors to generate revenue from users who cannot use the system unless they have the latest lookup tables. [2]

The techical concepts of RDS-TMC started to be developed about 30 years ago, initially by Blaupunkt and Philips. With European Commission funding, the BBC, Transport Research Laboratory and CCETT came together in a team led by Castle Rock Consultants to develop the standard. More recently, dedicated navigation device (PND) has emerged as an alternative way of delivering traffic information via mobile phones and hand-held PDAs with GPS.[3] Nevertheless, automobile companies continue to roll out RDS-TMC launches in various countries across the world. One reason is that the use of cellular phones and PDAs by drivers is attracting a great deal of legislative attention concerned about driver distraction. Like car radios, in-vehicle navigation systems have not so far attracted the same concerns, and may continue to outsell handheld solutions, just as luxury car radios eventually outsold pocket transistor radios in the 20th century.

The reality is that both types of services have their place, with no single solution having all the answers. Higher-end models of Personal Navigation Assistant come with a TMC receiver built-in and depending on the country, the service is available in Eclipse, Garmin, iPhone (Navigon), Navman, Navway, Mio, Pioneer, TomTom and Uniden navigation systems, and in Volvo, BMW and Ford Falcon navigation systems, among many others.

There are also TMC adapters, which extends mobile navigation systems with integrated GPS receiver (as mobile phones/PDAs with GPS) with TMC functionality. They can include a bluetooth or non-bluetooth (mainly, USB) connection. With help of the adapter, the received traffic messages are through-handed to the navigation software, these can again compute an alternative route with consideration of the new traffic conditions and avoid the traffic jam. The adaptors generally includes connector for FM/TMC Antenna (2,5mm phone jack). Some example of compatible navigation programs are Navigon MN5, Falk Navigator TMC Edition (special version for MyGuide Navigator 6500XL TMC Bundle) and Destinator PN.[4]

Simple RDS-TMC Decoder is a simple RDS (Radio Data System) decoder written for TMC analysis.[5]

In some places, TMC coverage is smaller than that of the radio programme carrying the TMC service, therefore white spots exist. For example, in the USA, one of the two TMC commercial services is run by Clear Channel Communications, whose 95 FM station urban markets will probably all have some level of traffic information services. However, the other is Sirius Satellite Radio, which covers all of North America, including deeply rural areas and almost empty deserts. Although vendors are beginning to make arrangements with statewide and multi-state information source systems such as CARS, operated by state police and state departments of transportation, it can be expected that coverage will remain sketchy in some states during the next few years. [6]

The following countries provide a TMC service:

Australia

Intelematics Australia broadcasts a national RDS-TMC service focused initially on urban Australia, under the consumer brand ‘SUNA Traffic Channel’. The service, which reaches around 85% of urban Australia is transmitted by commercial FM broadcasters in seven cities, as well as via XML for online and smartphone applications. The service is available on GPS systems including TomTom, Navman, Garmin, Uniden, iPhone (Navigon), Mio, Eclipse and Pioneer navigation systems, and in Ford Falcon navigation. SUNA is currently the only source of comprehensive, metropolitan congestion monitoring content in Australia – this is achieved using proprietary technology interfacing to traffic light control systems. The Suna broadcast service is fully compliant with both the RDS and TMC standard.

Sentinel Content Pty Limited provides a TMC Service service for Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane and is delivered using webservices and GPRS rather than RDS. While it does not broadcast an RDS service it does provide navigation vendors with web based traffic services.

Austria

In Austria, ORF is broadcasting the service, free of charge, on the radio channels Ö1, Ö2 (9 regional channels), Ö3, Radio Salzburg and FM4 and is supported by the Federal Ministry for Traffic, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT). ASFINAG is responsible for the location table, currently in version 2.1, which has undergone a number of updates in order to handle increased use during Euro 2008. In total, around 8.000 location codes are present in this table.

Baltic region

Destia Traffic has expressed plans to start broadcasting traffic information in the Baltic region soon.[citation needed]

Belgium

In Belgium there are 4 TMC services: TMOBILIS in Belgium, TIC-VL and 4FMTMC in Flanders and RTBF in Wallonia. All of them (except for TMOBILIS) are currently open services.

The first service is TMOBILIS provided by Be-Mobile and Touring Mobilis. It is the only fully Belgian service: On the one hand it combines all Belgian sources from the Flemish, Walloon and Brussels government, the police stations, a national Floating Car Datasystem based on Proximus and GPS vehicles, and the Touring Mobilis call center. On the other hand it is also nationally broadcast by both VRT on Studio Brussel for Flanders and RTBF on Classic21 in Wallonia.

The service TIC-VL is broadcast by VRT on Radio 2 and is using content from the Vlaams Verkeerscentrum.[7] Coverage of content and transmissions is limited to the Flanders region.

In the southern part of Belgium, Wallonia, the service CLASS.21 is broadcast by RTBF on Classic 21. The service is from the Centre PEREX of the Ministère de l’Équipement et des Transports (MET) in collaboration with TMC4U. Both coverage of transmissions and content is limited to Wallonia.

A last TMC service is 4FMTMC provided by Vialis, which is also operating TMC services in the Netherlands. It is broadcast by 4FM in Flanders, containing both the content from the Vlaams Verkeerscentrum and PEREX and so covers Belgium in total. In future they plan to add information on speed cameras.

Tritel creates the location tables by order of the regional communities. Since December 2004 the broadcast messages are according to location table version 1.4b, in which N-roads are added. The latest, currently used, version is 2.3 (from July 2008).

Czech Republic

In the Czech Republic, 3 services are available. 2 of them (TIC PRAGUE, TELEASIST) are in operation from January 2006 and one (JSDI) from 2008. All services are free to air.

A first service, called DIC PRAHA, is available in Prague. It is broadcast on Český Rozhlas – Regina (92.6 MHz). The service provider is TSK-Praha (Communication Technical Administration). The content comes from the traffic centre in Prague (TIC Prague) and consists of closures and restrictions and levels of service in Prague.

A second service, TELEASIST provided by Teleasist together with Global Assistance is available countrywide, however is not as detailed as TIC Prague in specific areas. It is being broadcasted by CRo1 Radiožurnál.

Last service, called JSDI, is provided by Czech Road Motorway Directorate (ŘSD ČR) and is broadcasted countrywide on ČRo3 Vltava. The content consists of closures and road restrictions and winter maintenance from all over the country, accident information from rescue services and detailed content from TIC Prague.

TMC developments are coordinated by CEDA. They are responsible for the location table (current version is 3.0, containing more than 16 000 records).

Denmark

The free TMC service DK-TMC in Denmark is operated by Vejdirektoratet or DRD (Danish Road Directorate). It is broadcast on DR P1, P2, P3 and P4.

DRD is also responsible for the location tables. The current version used is 9.0. It contains around 2.450 location codes.

Finland

The commercial service in Finland is provided by Destia. The service covers biggest cities and roads 1-999. These areas cover the whole country. TMC messages are broadcast nationally on YLE Radio Suomi channel. Destia uses several information sources to validate traffic data including induction loops, traffic cameras, radio stations, road users and several other partnership companies. The service is encrypted, based on the encryption specifications made by the TMC Forum.

The location table is provided by FINNRA, the Finnish Road Administration. The newest location table is version number 1.42 and it is used by Destia’s TMC service. This version of the table contains around 8.100 problem locations.

France

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 V-Trafic is provided by Mediamobile. It is a partnership between TDF, Renault, Trafficmaster and Cofiroute. The service, which replaces the previous Visionaute service, is transmitted on the frequencies of France Inter and can be received nationally. It includes the information from 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.

Next to that a service from ViaMichelin and Carte Blanche is provided, transmitted by the Towercast network (NRJ group). In September 2005 PSA Peugeot Citroën signed a partnership with ViaMichelin for the use of this info in their navigation systems.

Location tables are released by the government agency SETRA and includes about 20000 locations. Since version 0.4 it includes both inside Paris and outside Paris. The latest certified version is 8.0 for France (the last release contained around 13.500 problem locations) and 0.0 for Andorra (containing 62 problem locations).

Germany

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 TMCpro is a pay service provided by Navteq Services GmbH owned by Navteq. The service was developed and formerly provided by T-Systems Traffic GmbH a subsidiary of T-Systems which was bought by Navteq in January 2009. The service went live at the beginning of 2005 across Germany. The content is provided by ddg Gesellschaft für Verkehrsdaten mbh, a wholly owned subsidiary of T-Systems Traffic GmbH. It is an encrypted service, based on the conditional access specifications made by the TMC Forum.

BASt, the German Federal Highway Research Institute, is releasing location tables. In version 5.1 all major access roads leading to the football arenas which were used in the World Championship in 2006 were added. The current version is 8.0, which contains around 40.100 location codes.

Location tables for Germany have been updated, the new version (version 9) will be implemented on the 13 Apr 2010 11 am.

Hungary

A public TMC-service is available from 1 August 2008 in Budapest and from 20 August 2008 in the rest of the country. The current version of the location table is 2.0.

Indonesia

In Oct 2009, GEWI Europe GmbH & Co. KG released the TISA certified Location Table version 1.0 for Indonesia.

Iran

The service is currently unavalable, although the infrastructure is already in place; originaly for use by the Iranian National Broadcasting Company (IRIB). The service is expected to become publicly avaliable in 2010.

Israel

A commercial RDS-TMC service is offered by Decell Technologies since February 2011. Decell provides national coverage broadcasted by several leading regional radio stations. The content distribution relies on Decell's TISA certified TMC location table number 36. Decell provides real-time flow and incident traffic data on RDS-TMC to all leading navigation companies.

Italy

A public RDS-TMC service free of charge is available in Italy from 1 July 1998 by RAI. CCISS (National Traffic Information Centre) is providing the service. It is broadcasted on Rai Radio 1 FM; this service covers Italy.

Another TMC service is provided by the commercial radio station RTL 102.5 in cooperation with InfoBlu. This service is available as Premium Service so you have to use a software enabled receiver and covers 90% of the population of Italy, and is still increasing.[8]

The Italian location table, provided by RAI-CCISS, is in its version 2.1 with around 12.500 codes.

Netherlands

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. TMC4U is a collaboration between Siemens and ANWB. The transmissions are on the radio channels of SkyRadio, Radio Veronica, Radio 1 and Radio 3.

A second TMC service ViaTMC is provided by Vialis. They are transmitting on the FM channels of Q-music (previously Radio Noordzee), BNR Nieuwsradio and Radio 538. Information of traffic jams, road works and so on is the same on both channels, but they add information on speed traps to it independent of each other.

Radio 2 is also sending out TMC-messages, working with data from Vialis.

Location tables come from AVV Transport Research Centre and are supplied by TIC Nederland. The current version is 6.1 which has additions for parking areas / parking lots compared to the ‘old’ 2003.a version.

New Zealand

The New Zealand Automobile Association broadcasts traffic alerts via FM broadcast radio in and around Greater Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.[9]

Norway

As of 2009, NRK has an open TMC service in a testing phase.[9] The open service is transmitted using the P1-frequency, and information on coverage and nearest transmitter can be found on.[10] NRK broadcasts information on roadworks, planned closures and winter-closed mountain passes. Updates on accidents and other unforeseen information are currently done Mon-Fri 05.30-22.00, Sat 09.30-17.00 and Sun 13.00-22.00.

The private radio station P4 is working with Destia Traffic[11] to provide TMC info in Norway. This service is encrypted but free (according to Destia Traffic) for all private users, and some GPS manufacturers, such as TomTom, Garmin, mio and Navigon provide Destia Traffic’ service for free.[12]

In 2003 there was an experiment with distributing TMC-messages in a limited area (Østfold, Akershus and Oslo). A private operator might start a commercial service during 2008. In June Destia starts to broadcast the TMC service in Norway.

Statens vegvesen, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA), is releasing location tables. The current version is V3.1[13]

Poland

From 1 May 2010, commercial TMC service is available in Poland, on private radio station RMF FM. The service is provided by Destia Traffic and it’s currently available for Garmin and Navigon users.

Singapore

In Jun 2006, GEWI Europe GmbH & Co. KG released the first TISA certified TMC Location Table for Singapore and started a broadcast service which is operated by its branch company, GEWI Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd. GEWI's traffic services are available on several models of Nokia smartphones, PAPAGO! and Garmin GPS navigation devices.

In Nov 2010, the Land Transport Authority announced^[15] the release of the Location Table for Singapore. Quantum Inventions offers a traffic data service based on this location table and includes traffic incidents information, traffic speeds, parking availability, weather, road closures, etc. Various brands of GPS systems using the Galactio software provide these dynamic data in the navigation system.

Slovenia

In June 2009 Slovenian national radio has started to broadcast traffic data every 15 minutes. Available for Monolit and Garmin users. Plans are in place to also affer the service to Navteq users.

Spain

A TMC service is available in Spain on RNE 3. It is provided by

* SCT as the operator of traffic management in Catalonia Autonomous Community

* DT in the Basque Country Autonomous Community

* DGT (Traffic General Directorate) as the operator for the rest of the country’s traffic management.

The road network coverage is the motorways, national roads and first level roads that belong to the Autonomous Communities. Next to that, RACC[14] is working on urban TMC services, starting with Seville and Barcelona. This will broadcast on RNE 2.

Location tables are coming from DGT, Dirección General de Tráfico. The current version is 2.1 and contains about 7.750 problem locations.

Sweden

A free service is available in Sweden. Swedish Transport Administration, or Trafikverket, is responsible for the free service and for making the location tables. Nowadays version 2.2.2009 is in use for broadcasting RDS-TMC messages, which contains about 22587 location Codes and 923 Area, 4191 road/ segment/ street and 17473 points. New versions are always backward compatible.

Regarding the transmission, Sweden is divided into 8 broadcasting zones in order not to transmit traffic information that is not useful 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 broadcast on Sveriges Radio P3 radio station and covers 98 percent of Sweden. 98 percent is multi-messages in the air in Sweden.

Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) has an information page for Trafikverket RDS-TMC in Swedish.

Switzerland

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.

* In German speaking areas: DRS 1 (G) / DRS 3 (G) / La 1ère (F) / Rete Uno (I) partly

* In French speaking areas: La 1ère (F) / Couleur 3 (F) / DRS 1 (G) / Rete Uno (I) partly

* In Italian speaking areas: Rete Uno (I) / Rete Tre (I) / DRS 1 (G) / La 1ère (F)

It is Viasuisse, a daughter company of it, that operates the service.

Location codes are the responsibility of the Swiss Federal Roads Authority FEDRO but B+S Ingenieur (Bundesamt fuer Strassen) makes the location tables. Version 5.5 is the latest version, containing around 10.000 codes, and is backwards compatible.

Taiwan

The Taiwanese police radio station and Ministry of Transportation and Communication (MOTC) both broadcast RDS-TMC traffic data. It is currently available for TomTom, Garmin, Panasonic, PaPaGo and Mio devices.

United Kingdom

The private company iTIS Holdings provides a commercial TMC service iTMC in the United Kingdom. It is broadcast nationally on Classic FM and broadcast is supplemented by use of other commercial radio stations. ITIS provides traffic data on RDS-TMC to all the major automotive companies (BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Ford , Jaguar/Landrover and others). The price of the service is included in the price of the car or of the navigation system.

This system uses Floating Vehicle Data, positional information from over 160,000 vehicles fitted with fleet management systems, this data provides the information about traffic speed and congestion throughout the UK road network. The data is complemented by journalistic or “Incident” data provided by Trafficlink. Trafficlink is owned by ITIS and provides live traffic and travel bulletins to BBC National and Local Radio and also to over 95% of the UK commercial radio stations. The incident data included in to the TMC data includes road works, accidents and closures.

RAC Live operated by RAC Trafficmaster Telematics (RTT) a 50-50 joint venture between RAC Motoring Services and Trafficmaster also operates a national service. It uses the local and regional radio broadcaster Global Radio to ensure reception across mainland Britain. This system uses road-side infrastructure to measures a vehicle’s travel time between sensors placed a few miles apart, and uses number plate recognition technology.

Both providers are responsible for their own location tables. The current location table version of ITIS is 5.1. The current location table version of Trafficmaster is 3.1.

Within the United Kingdom TMC services are only offered as pay services. As such they are currently always carried by commercial radio stations rather than by the BBC, a public service broadcaster. The BBC is required by its charter to be free from both political and commercial influence and is therefore unable to carry a pay service unavailable to all.

United States and Canada

In the United States of America, XM Satellite Radio started transmitting TMC messages all over the US, as has Sirius Satellite Radio. NAVTEQ provides traffic data to both XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. NAVTEQ Traffic delivers traffic information and related advertising via RDS and HD signals to navigation devices nationwide. NAVTEQ also provides high quality traffic sourced from sensors, probes and other technologies in 10+ countries as of Dec 2009. INRIX, Inc. fuses TMC data with real-time flow information from its crowd-sourced network of floating cars and mobile devices with information from other public and private sources to deliver real-time and predictive traffic information.

Clear Channel Communications and Tele Atlas have a TMC service called Total Traffic Network (TTN), using FM RDS in 77 US cities and three Canadian metropolitan areas.[15] These services are both subscription, and were initially available to many in-car navigation units via an expansion module purchased separately.

The TomTom RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver acquires information through an FM radio signal broadcast by Clear Channel’s regional providers. By connecting a TomTom GO device to the RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver, users automatically receive traffic information via the TMC connection. Once a trip is planned, traffic alerts are displayed in the traffic bar on the right hand side of the screen. When users tap the traffic bar, they receive further information, such as accident or traffic delays. The RDS-TMC Traffic Receiver is compatible with the TomTom GO 920, TomTom GO 720, TomTom ONE XL and TomTom ONE 3rd EDITION. It provides integration of RDS-TMC Traffic information with the user interface of the TomTom GO and ONE products.

By now, in addition these after-market services, about six major motor manufacturers are offering RDS-TMC as standard in their U.S. vehicles, including Volvo and BMW.

Ibiquity HD Radio is advertising a TMC service based on the existing RDS-TMC standard. Utilizing the established standard for RDS/TMC, the Traffic Message Channel (TMC) is a data application for broadcasting real-time traffic information. Data messages will be received and decoded by a TMC-based receiver in conjunction with HD Radio devices and navigation systems. Traffic services are delivered to the driver in a vehicle in a variety of ways: the most common of these being a TMC-enabled navigation system.

[edit] Other planned services

It is also planned to start in Portugal, however no further information is available on this at present. In Romania and Luxembourg no service is currently planned. In Dubai the location table version 1.2 has been certified. In Turkey and Ireland[16] it is planned but not in usage yet.

In China they are currently investigating on which technology their traffic information system will be based. The main choice is between the Japanese system VICS and the European TMC. A TMC Location table version 1.0 has been certified already.

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