A detailed analysis published at the end of 2016 on the European Parliament website supports the approach advocated by the European Union for the introduction of 5G mobile telephony standards. It does, however, recommend that more attention be paid to the wishes of consumers in this field.
The document of around 40 pages was compiled at the request of Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy Committee by two researchers, including Colin Blackman from the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS). He examined the EU’s strengths and weaknesses in the global race to develop 5G, a technology that will help reach ultrafast internet speeds (up to 100 Gbps for the highest spectrum frequencies).
He explained that “there is justification for certain types of EU support for the development of 5G because of its long-term potential for the EU economy” (it could be used more widely than for just a small-cell broadband network for streaming entertainment video).
He also explains that in order to compete with China, South Korea and the US, the European Union will have to examine consumers’ long-term expectations (corporate and individual). It will also have to better define its objectives and scope of applications for 5G, adopt a specific approach for granting network licenses (by allowing, for example, licence exemptions) or predict short-term applications for small-cell networks.
On the other hand, he welcomed the EU research strategy “Under the FP7 initiative, at least ten research projects examined advanced wired and radio communications including COMBO, METIS, 5GNOW, iJOIN, TROPIC, Mobile Cloud Networking, PHYLAWS, CROWD and MOT”.
He also underlined the advantages of the 5G PPP (public private partnership) with €1.4 billion of funding.
According to a Commission study, the 5G goods and services market is expected to earn €113 billion a year and create 2.3 million jobs. The analysis can be consulted at the following website: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2016/595337/IPOL_IDA (2016)595337_EN.pdf.(Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)