EU activates cross-border interoperability for Covid-19 tracing apps

News Wireless Europe 20 OKT 2020
EU activates cross-border interoperability for Covid-19 tracing apps
The European Union has confirmed the activation of cross-border interoperability for a first wave of Covid-19 contact tracing apps and warning apps following a successful pilot phase. National apps linked through the gateway service are Germany’s Corona-Warn-App, Ireland’s Covid tracker and Italy’s Immuni app, which have been downloaded by around 30 million people, equivalent to two-thirds of all app downloads in the EU. As a result, users of the apps can now travel to any of the other countries and expect their national app to continue sending relevant exposure notifications.

The EC said a total of 20 apps based on decentralised systems can be interoperable through the gateway service and a second set of national apps will be added next week after a period of testing. These are Czechia’s eRouska, Denmark’s Smitte|stop, Latvia’s Apturi Covid and Spain’s Radar Covid, with more expected to be added in November.

The gateway system was developed and set up in less than two months by T-Systems and SAP, and will be operated from the Commission's data centre in Luxembourg. However, it’s currently designed to work only with official coronavirus apps based on a decentralised architecture, meaning those with a centralised architecture, including France’s StopCovid app, are not compatible at this stage.

The European Commission will finance the development of the platform with EUR 13 million from the ESI emergency fund, German paper Wirtschaftswoche reports. The European Commission will give EUR 7 million to SAP and Deutsche Telekom for the development and installation of the app by the beginning of 2021 and around EUR 3 million for maintenance through the end of 2021. An additional EUR 3 million will be available in the form of grants for EU countries that want to connect their apps to the warning platform. 

The development of the German coronavirus tracing app and the operation of the infrastructure will cost a total of around EUR 68 million by the end of 2021, according to the same report. The German Covid-19 warning app was also developed by SAP and DT.

Categories:

Mobile

Companies:

T-Systems,  European Commission,  SAP,  Deutsche Telekom

Regions:

Europe

Tags:

Security, Launch, IT - applications, Wireless, Consumer, Government policy

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