22. 8. 90 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 228/31 COMMISSION DECISION of 27 July 1990 relating to a proceeding under Article 85 of the EEC Treaty (IV/32.688 — Konsortium ECR 900) (Only the English, Dutch and German texts are authentic) (90/446/EEC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty. establishing the European Economic Community, Having regard to Council Regulation No 17 of 6 February 1962, First Regulation implementing Articles 85 and 86 of the Treaty ('), as last amended by the Act of Accession of Spain and Portugal, and in particular Article 2 thereof, Having regard to the notification of a cooperation agree- ment on 7 April 1988 by the firms AEG Aktiengesell- schaft, Alcatel NV and Oy Nokia AB, Having published a summary of the notification (3 pursuant to Article 19 (3) of Regulation No 17, Having consulted the Advisory Committee on Restrictive . Practices- and Dominant Positions, Whereas : 1. THE FACTS A. Subject of the notification On 7 April 1988, AEG Aktiengesellschaft, Alcatel NV and Oy Nokia notified a cooperation agree- ment concluded by them. The cooperation between the undertakings relates to the formation of a consortium, ECR 900, for the joint development and manufacture and the joint distribution of a pan-European dlgltal cellular mobile telephone system. The cooperation does not include the end products (mobile telephones) through which users are connected to the system. B. The undertakings concerned (1)  AEG Aktiengesellschaft ('AEG’), whose head office is in Frankfurt, Federal Republic of Germany, is a group owned on' a majority holding basis by the - Daimler-Benz AG group, whose head office is in Stuttgart-Untertiirkheim, Federal Republic of Germany. AEG’s activities include automation () OJ No 13, 21. 2. 1962, p. 204/62. () OJ No C 308, 7. 12. 1989, p. 5. systems, electrical tools, energy distribution, house- hold equipment and high-frequency, industrial, information and communications technology. (2  Alcatel NV (‘Alcatel’), whose head office is in Amsterdam, Netherlands, is owned on-a-majority holding basis by the CGE group, whose head office is- in Paris, France. Alcatel’s activities comprise communications systems and .information techno- logy. (3) Oy Nokia AB (‘Nokia’), whose head office is in Helsinki, Finland, does not belong to any other group, but is an independent group of underta- kings. Its activities include information systems, telecommunications, mobile telephones and consumer electronics. " C.sDescription of the telephone system (1) In the ‘CEPT-Memorandum of Understanding’ of 7 September 1987 (%), the signatories agreed to introduce a pan-European public digital cellular mobile telecommunications service in. their coun- ~ tries in 1991. The planned telephone system, known as the GSM (‘Groupe spécial mobile’) system, is a new communications system which does -not yet exist. (2)  The system-uses a new, digital, cellular technique to improve communication between the users of a mobile telephone network in numerous respects : there is a substantial improvement in speech quality and an increase in the total number of - users. The system -allows additional data and infor- mation technology services to ‘be linked up and new protective arrangements to. be included (authentication  to prevent misuse of users’ appliances and encoding to prevent unauthorized - interception of communications). The agreement of virtually-all the network operators in Europe on the hardware and software interfaces of the system removes all the communication obstacles created by differences in systems across geographical fron- tiers and opens up the way for-a single European communication network which would, for example, allow a user to be contacted anywhere in Europe (‘roaming’). () CEPT = Conférence Européenne des Administrations des Postes et des Télécommunications