@RMC, thank you for pointing this out.
The original posts are quite some time ago and I do hope some change has been seen with EGTT in the usage of CPDLC.
At Maastricht we had quite a large group with the same reservations as described here a couple of years ago.
The group has gotten smaller. We did have a couple of similar restrictions and a couple of odd ones.
Back in the day there was a need for crew to give a readback on frequency to any message sent... bringing the r/t offload back to a minimum or even increasing it.
Luckily all these things belong to the past now.
What is needed is for the right people on the critical positions to realize the potential of CPDLC and therefor increasing the priority in improving the functionallity and HMI for the ATCO’s at ANSP level.
As for FANS1/A indeed it can have quite some limitation to the operational use. You need to be patient when dealing with those flights. And most of us are not patient. Having said that from the moment ATN moved more and more to dedicated frequencies we saw an improvement with FANS1/A as well. During the night time, as the frequencies are not congested, CPDLC messages to FANS1/A are (almost) as quick as ATN.
It is a shame however that EGTT automatically send out a message to crews that CPDLC is not in use with the next centre when they transfer to Maastricht. Which is obviously incorrect.
For ANSP’s it has become official to use CPDLC as from February 5th 2018. (Some still need to do some work)
As for AO’s the deadline is February 5th 2020.
so please log on and use it as much as possible.
Not only will it save time it will show more and more the benefit and potantial of CPDLC and hopefully expedite improvements to the system at all levels (ANSP’s/AO’s/aircraft manufactorers).