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Digital economy commissioner says industry’s input will inform autumn’s 5G action plan.
The EU’s digital economy minister Günther Oettinger has welcomed the ‘5G manifesto’ put forward by a group of 17 major European telecoms players, saying that it will help inform the bloc’s strategy for developing and rolling out the next generation of mobile technology.
The manifesto calls for coordinated action on standardisation, spectrum allocation, network deployment, and ecosystem development spanning multiple industry verticals. It is endorsed by the CEOs of BT, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telefonica, Vodafone, Telecom Italia, as well as vendors Ericsson and Nokia, among others.
It also suggests the EU consider allocating funds for 5G research and large-scale trials, and forms policies that encourage the investment in, and streamline the rollout of, 5G networks and technologies.
"5G is needed to move one gear up, and envisage a European continent where everything that can be connected will be connected to offer new products and services and improve our quality of life and our competitiveness," Oettinger said on Thursday.
"I very much welcome the 5G Manifesto and discussions today with the high-level industry group. These will help us focus on the key levers to ensure European digital leadership in 5G. I will come forward with a 5G Action Plan in the autumn," he said.
Unsurprisingly, the network operators have also called on the EU to level the regulatory playing field by holding OTT communication services like Skype and WhatsApp to the same standards as carrier-grade services.
They also warned that the recently-enacted net neutrality rules may jeopardise 5G investment on the grounds that a 5G network will be able to automatically tailor performance according to the type of traffic it is carrying, from bandwidth-hungry services like augmented reality or 4K video, to narrowband services such as connected utility meters.
Therefore, 5G, they argue, could find itself on the wrong side of the EU’s net neutrality rules, which seek to prevent unfair discrimination between different types of traffic.
With the right regulations in place the group are confident they can get 5G up and running in at least one city in every EU country by 2020.
However, they warn that as things stand, investments in 5G are likely to be delayed "unless regulators take a positive stance on innovation and stick to it."
Total Telecom has already ventured an opinion on this particular issue, and Oettinger made no reference to the telcos’ dire warnings in his official remarks.
The EU is currently holding a public consultation on 5G, which will help it develop its ‘5G Action Plan’, which Oettinger said will "bring momentum and make sure that member states work together towards a common practical goal: starting to deploy 5G in 2020 and making world class connectivity infrastructure available in support of digital businesses like automotive, health, energy, media and manufacturing."
