Meeting the European Union’s connectivity targets would require deploying around 500,000 new small cells, particularly in urban and suburban areas, between now and 2030. However, current rollout plans are quite far removed from that trajectory according to ‘Completing the Digital Single Market’, a report that was published by the European Commission and that accompanies the impact assessment for the Digital Networks Act.
The report confirms, “Network densification across the EU remains well below the levels required to meet the Digital Decade 2030 targets and to support advanced 5G services”.
According to the study, the current regulatory framework, primarily the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), is seen “by many stakeholders as unclear or outdated”. It states, “Overall fragmentation prevents the creation of a true single market and prevents the sector from tapping into economies of scale.”
“Divergent national authorisation and spectrum assignment practices create legal uncertainty and significant barriers to pan-European deployment”, warns the report.
Article 37 of the EECC does allow joint authorisation arrangements that go beyond simple technical harmonisation, but this option “has never been used”. As for the peer review mechanism – meant to increase consistency in spectrum assignment conditions – it “has limited practical overall effect”.
Despite the “early harmonisation” of the key 5G pioneer bands, the EU is lagging behind its main global competitors in deploying high-performance 5G networks – in particular, 5G Standalone (5G SA), which uses mid- and high-band frequencies.
“Regions like China, South Korea, and the US are significantly ahead in deploying 5G SA networks, which serve as a critical bridge towards 6G”, the document warns. “Ookla estimates that 5G SA is currently available to only around 2% of European consumers, compared to 80% in China, 52% in India, and 24% in the US”, the report stresses.
Deployment “remains uneven” across Member States – many of them mainly relying on low-band or non-standalone 5G solutions, which results in lower speeds and higher latency. “The main drivers include delayed and staggered spectrum awards, heterogeneous auction designs, high spectrum costs in some markets, divergent licence conditions, and uncertainty around licence duration and renewal. Inconsistent coverage obligations and interference issues further reduce spectrum efficiency and investment incentives, limiting advanced use cases and constraining the transition towards 6G,” the report warns.
“To improve 5G deployment in rural areas, a combination of spectrum-sharing mechanisms and infrastructure sharing offers a cost-effective solution,” concludes the report.
See the document: https://aeur.eu/f/mb1 (Original version in French by Ana Pisonero Hernández)