Public free TMC services are well developed in Germany. Ten public broadcasters and some private radio stations distribute RDS-TMC messages on some 30 channels. This means that TMC messages are available in the whole Federal Republic (100% coverage).

The German Location Table (LT) contains roughly 32,500 locations, covering not only the whole motorway network but also all major highways and even parts of city roads. The new Location Table, version 4.0, also includes all major access roads leading to the football arenas which will be used in the World Championship in 2006. The compilation of the Location Table is organised by the Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen.

Public TMC services have been operational since 1997; some 3 million receivers - especially navigation systems - use RDS-TMC for information and navigation.

In addition to the public service, there is a national commercial TMC service, TMCpro, operated by T-Mobile Traffic. The service has been in live operation since March 2004 and has now been officially launched. Country-wide service coverage is implemented through a network of private broadcasters, with coverage of landmass and motorways beyond 90%.

The service is provided by T-Mobile Traffic GmbH under a commercial agreement with automotive and terminal manufacturers.  The RDS-TMC Message Management and distribution activities are operated by T-Systems Media&Broadcast, a branch within the group Deutsche Telekom dedicated to the operation of broadcasting platforms.

The traffic content for the TMC service is provided by the company ddg Gesellschaft für Verkehrsdaten mbh, a 100% subsidiary of T-Mobile Traffic GmbH. Its high-quality traffic content combines traffic reports available through all public sources, traffic flow data generated over an extensive network of stationary sensors mounted on German motorways and additionally floating car data (FCD):

• A stationary system of 4,000 infra-red detectors mounted onto motorway bridges to measure the velocity of the traffic flow
• Real-time records of traffic velocities and flow values, generated by a dedicated public infrastructure of about 5,500 inductive loops
• Data generated by a fleet of so-called “Floating Cars”, equipped with a GPS tracking unit that transmits the vehicle location and its speed to DDG’s data processing
• Last but not least, traffic reports from the police authorities complete the information input, in particular with an indication of the cause of the traffic disturbances.