GSMA says Europe’s 5G adoption lags behind other regionsGSMA says Europe’s 5G adoption lags behind other regions

The report clears its throat by pointing to the successes of 5G across Europe so far. 5G accounts for the majority of connections in Germany and Switzerland, while adoption rates in Denmark, Finland, Norway and the UK have exceeded 40%, we’re told.

By 2030, 5G will provide an additional €164 billion boost to the overall economy, and will make up 80% of the continent’s connections compared to 4G’s 18%, claims the report.

Europe however continues to ‘lag’ behind other advanced regions such as North America, East Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council states where many operators are setting their sights on the next generation of networks, it claims, with “urgent policy reforms required to drive a step-change in access to investment across the continent to keep it competitive globally.”

The report points to 5G Standalone (SA) and 5G-Advanced as gaining traction and that these will provide new applications like network slicing and will help to unlock new use cases and monetisation opportunities.

18 European operators had launched 5G SA services as of September 2024, it says, and 5G-Advanced is set to deliver “new solutions for enterprises, enabling uplink and multicast services at better latency, increasing accuracy for extended reality applications and improving the reliability of AI.” 

Digital infrastructure will help Europe sustain global competitiveness, we’re told, which will support an expected three-fold rise in mobile data traffic by 2030. But the report asserts that unless “key regulatory challenges that restrict investment capacity in the European sector are resolved, the increased adoption of these technologies in Europe will progress more slowly.”

In terms of what regulatory changes it means, it recommends the following action points for the European Commission:

These suggestions are described as a first step “towards re-energising the European telecoms sector as an engine of competitiveness and prosperity.”

“Europe is at a crossroads in its development of the digital infrastructure that its businesses and citizens will need to succeed,” said The GSMA’s Chief Regulatory Officer, John Giusti. “It is concerning to see it falling further and further behind other large markets around the world.

“The mobile industry brings more than €1 trillion to Europe’s economy as well as millions of jobs, and its role as a key enabler of commerce, logistics and innovation needs to be prioritised and strengthened. Urgent action is needed from the European Commission and other authorities within the European Union to deliver the policy reforms that Europe’s digital economy needs to support strong, sustained network innovation and to re-establish a leadership position in the global technology marketplace by 2030.”

The gist of the report appears to be that while Europe has done well with 5G rollouts (another stat in the report states mobile technologies and services now generate around 5% of GDP across Europe, amounting to almost €1.1 trillion of economic value) in terms of future digital infrastructure growth, policy reforms are needed to “re-establish a leadership position in the global tech race by 2030.”

The report notes that these policies were conceived 20–30 years ago and they should be updated “to match today’s market realities and challenges.”

“Despite the objective of ensuring more harmonisation, the European telecoms single market has not emerged,” laments the report. “The regulatory framework, primarily defined by the European Electronic Communications Code (EECC), is a directive with national implementation, and telcos are additionally subject to a range of non-sector-specific nationally implemented laws.

“The European telecoms industry could improve efficiencies and regain strength if it could develop and deploy certain services on a cross-border or even pan-EU basis. In particular, the industry would benefit from reforms that can correct inconsistencies in the regulation and reduce barriers to enable a true single digital market.”

Similar arguments have been made by the GSMA for years now, and one of the things it appears to be getting at is making cross-border mergers or services easier. It remains a tricky one to swallow since it’s made in the same breath as celebrating the successes of the European connectivity space thus far. It’s not to say operators don’t face challenges, and it’s one thing to highlight new technology areas that might be worth focussing more on. But when it comes to sweeping the board with how regulation works, the questions remains, if it ain’t broke why fix it?