Newsletter 22 – October 2020

5G status in Europe

In the last weeks, 5G has been lighted up in Bulgaria (Vivacom), Czech Republic (O2, Vodafone), Denmark (TDC), Germany (Telefonica), Ireland (Three), the Netherlands (KPN, T-Mobile), Poland (Orange), Slovenia (Telekom Slovenije), Spain (Telefonica, Orange, Masmovil).

When it comes to spectrum, Member States adopted a roadmap for spectrum assignment with a deadline of December 2020 for the three pioneer bands (700 MHz, 3500 MHz, 26 GHz).

The 700 MHz band has been assigned in ten Member States: Austria (September 2020), Germany (June 2015), France (November 2015), Finland (November 2016), Hungary (March 2020), Italy (October 2018), Luxembourg (2020), Netherlands (July 2020), Sweden (December 2018) and Denmark (March 2019).

Spectrum within 3.4-3.8 GHz frequency band has already been assigned in accordance with 5G technical conditions in 16 countries (EU-27 countries and the UK): Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom. France awarded 3.5 GHz spectrum on 1 October 2020. It raised 2,786 million EUR significantly above the minimum of 2,170 million EUR.

Spectrum within 26 GHz frequencies has already been assigned in Italy (October 2018) and Finland (June 2020). In the UK, local licences are available on demand subject to coordination.

5G status in Asia-Pacific

5G adoption in China continues to grow at an unprecedented pace. The 100 million 5G subscribers mark has been reached in China as at end June 2020. Three months later, as at end September 2020, the number of China Mobile ‘s 5G subscriptions overtook the 100 million mark alone (113.6 million). The cumulated number of 5G connections in China for China Mobile et China Telecom surpassed 174 million pushing the total 5G subscriptions in China up to almost 200 million. In South Korea, 8.7 million 5G subscribers were registered as at end August 2020. NTT DoCoMo ended June 2020 with 149,000 5G modules, three months after launch.

5G status in North America

5G has been available in the USA since 2018. All the major players provide 5G services, be they mobile or FWA. 5G has been launched by two major Canadian mobile operators (Telus and Bell) in June 2020. The Telus 5G launch was put on hold a few weeks due to the covid-19. The Canadian 3.5 GHz spectrum auction has been delayed by the Government by one year and rescheduled to start on 15 June 2021.

On the spectrum side, US players have been assigned mmwave spectrum in the last years and mid-band spectrum has also been assigned recently (latest auction of 3.5 GHz spectrum ended in August 2020). Additional spectrum will be made available in the coming months. In Canada, the 3.5 GHz auction has been postponed due to covid-19 to June 2021. In both countries, sub-1 GHz spectrum is available for 5G (600/700 MHz).

5G PPP Part5 Projects

The European Commission recently disclosed the eight selected projects for 5G PPP Phase 3 Part 5 in response to the 5G PPP ICT-42-2020 call: 5G PPP 5G Core Technologies innovation and 3o the 5G PPP ICT-53-2020 call: 5G PPP 5G for Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM). Most of these projects started in September 2020 and will run for about three years.  The eight projects retained for ICT-42-2020 are :

The three projects retained for ICT-53-2020 are :

See here for more detailed information.

Further successful steps for a 5G European market

• Small area wireless access points – On 30 June 2020, the Commission has adopted the Implementing Regulation on small-area wireless access points, or small antennas, which are crucial for the timely deployment of 5G networks that are delivering high-capacity and increased coverage as well as advanced connection speeds. The Regulation specifies the physical and technical characteristics of small cells for 5G networks. It aims to help simplify and accelerate 5G network installations, which should be facilitated through a permit-exempt deployment regime, while ensuring that national authorities keep oversight.
• 5G Security – On 24 July 2020, EU Member States, with the support of the European Commission and ENISA, the EU Agency for Cybersecurity, published a report on the progress made in implementing the joint EU toolbox of mitigating measures, which was agreed by the Member States and endorsed by a Commission Communication in January 2020.
• 5G Open RAN – On 24 July 2020, the European Commission launched an independant study on 5G supply markets and Open RAN. It will analyse global 5G supply market trends and set out possible options for the Commission to facilitate the development of a diverse and sustainable 5G ecosystem in the EU. The study will serve as input for the Commission to support the implementation of the 5G cybersecurity toolbox adopted last January. It is complementary to the mitigation measures taken by Member States as outlined in the NIS report on the state of its implementation published on 24 July.
• 5G Connectivity and Coverage – On 18 September 2020, the Commission took further steps in the Digital Decade agenda to strengthen Europe’s digital sovereignty, as announced by President Ursula von der Leyen. The Commission published a Recommendation calling Member States to boost investment in very high-capacity broadband connectivity infrastructure, including 5G, which is the most fundamental block of the digital transformation and an essential pillar of the recovery. The timely deployment of 5G networks will offer significant economic opportunities for the years to come, as a crucial asset for European competitiveness, sustainability and a major enabler for future digital services.
• 5G joint Investment and Deployment – At the same time, the Commission published another Recommendation calling Member States to boost investment in very high-capacity broadband connectivity infrastructure, including 5G, which is the most fundamental block of the digital transformation and an essential pillar of the recovery. The timely deployment of 5G networks will offer significant economic opportunities for the years to come, as a crucial asset for European competitiveness, sustainability and a major enabler for future digital services.
• 5G Investment Agenda for CCAM –  On 1 October 2020, the 5G Strategic Deployment Agenda for Connected and Automated Mobility (Click to open document) was shared by the Associations as stakeholders ACEA, CEDR, GSMA & 5GAA. The white paper was issued as a result of a process facilitated by the 5G PPP Automotive Working Group and the European Commission DG CNECT. This agenda is the result of stakeholder engagement under the joint initiative between the European Commission and European ICT industry (the 5G Public-Private Partnership, or the 5G PPP). It builds upon the initial draft version of the agenda that had been issued in October 2019. The stakeholders involved in this cooperation include representatives from the relevant European industry associations who provide their formal support in the document, as well as the experts of the three 5G corridor trial projects under Horizon 2020.

Key outputs from the 2nd 5G Observatory Workshop

Pearse O’Donohue, Director for the Future Networks Directorate of DG CONNECT, came back on the Covid-19 crisis impact on the European economy. He underlined that the crisis slowed down a number of regulatory processes linked to 5G spectrum auctions but highlighted the essential role of connectivity in the society. He also pinpointed that 5G technologies and services could be a key vector for growth and recovery in the European Union.

Main findings of the second year of the 5G Observatory were reviewed in Session I. The current state of play of 5G deployment, the latest market trends and the impact of the current crisis on the 5G progress were discussed. A panel session followed on challenges and opportunities for Europe in the next few years, the review of deployment targets, and possible new measures to be taken by policy makers to ease 5G deployments and increase 5G coverage. Questions on 5G acceptance, 5G cybersecurity and on local deployments and rollouts were also dealt with.  The main issues related with the gaps between the 5G Action Plan and in its implementation were also examined.

In the second session, possible new actions to facilitate 5G deployments were discussed, as well as options for the 5G Observatory to measure 5G progress in the next years. The methodology that has been used will need to be adjusted to fit the purpose of the 5G action plan in the long term. The strategical implementation of 5G in Europe is very much related to verticals and to the economic sectors which will drive demand. Measuring progress achieved on 5G is a challenge, designing indicators is key. As a first step to define indicators, IDATE DigiWorld presented a concept paper on deployment monitoring. Feedback from the audience was collected and discussed in a concluding panel.

5G-VINNI/Telenor @3rd Nordic Conference on ICT: 5G for Industry & Society

NTNU, SINTEF, Telenor Research and 5G-VINNI invites to a 2-day virtual conference to discuss the changes, challenges, and opportunities the Telco Industry will face in their journey to commercialize 5G for industry and society. The event will be live-streamed.

The agenda is available here.

You can also register online here.

5G PPP Webinar: 5G for Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM)

The 5G-PPP webinar ‘5G for Cooperative, Connected and Automated Mobility (CCAM)’ will be held on November 6, 2020. The webinar will take place in two sessions:

The first will show the ongoing CCAM work and the white paper produced by the three H2020-ICT-18-2018 5G PPP corridor projects:
5GCroCo, 5G-CARMEN and 5G-MoBiX:

The CCAM white paper introduces the scope, use cases, trial sites and particularities of each of the three H2020-ICT-18-2018 5G PPP corridor projects: 5GCroCo, 5G-CARMEN and 5G-MoBiX. These projects address a number of technical, organizational, business and administrative challenges that the provision of CCAM functionality over 5G connectivity poses in highway and national border (corridors) environments. The projects are performing 5G-enabled Autonomous Driving AD trials at national border conditions and are drawing useful insights regarding the challenges and opportunities of provisioning 5G-enabled CCAM services in cross-border conditions. This white paper, a joint effort by the three projects, presents their preliminary results, based on currently available technological enablers, with the capacity to mitigate and/or resolve the above mentioned challenges. It also identifies and elaborates on the main concerns and challenges arising from deploying advanced CCAM use cases at regional borders.

The second part of the webinar will introduce the new CAM related Projects under the 5G-PPP ICT-53-2020 call:
5GBlueprint, 5GMED,  5G-ROUTES (and possibly 5GRAIL):

The challenge for the ICT-53 projects is to qualify and characterise the latest version of 5G specifications as available from 3G PP release 16 early 2020 (5G NR-V2X and beyond) in the context of advanced use cases deployment in Europe of CAM that may also benefit from Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions. It targets use cases beyond C-ITS safety applications in view of enabling use cases in the context of complete connectivity-enabled ecosystems around cars and vehicles. It supports the realisation of the strategic objective of having all major transport paths covered with 5G connectivity by 2025 through cross-border trials along major transport paths planned for CAM deployment (“5G corridors”) and paves the way towards operational deployment as envisaged with the Connecting Europe Facility proposal. The work is also relevant to cross border railway corridors in view of providing services to trains, including in the context of the planned Future Railways Mobile Communication Systems (FRMCS) planned to replace GSM-R around 2030.

For further information and registration, please go to the event’s website.

5G Techritory – 3rd annual Baltic Sea Region 5G ecosystem forum

5G EVE Webinar – Italian Site Demo

Boosting the Impact of Research & Innovation through Standardization

COREnect Workshop – Building European technological sovereignty

The COREnect project is organising its 1st workshop, entitled “Building European technological sovereignty in 5G and beyond”, that will be held inco-location with the EFECS2020 conference, on November 26th, from 13.30 to 15.30 CET. This is an opportunity for the Key Digital Technologies (KDT) and the Smart Network and Services (SNS) communities to come together, and elaborate a joint technology roadmap for European microelectronics and telecommunications industries.

Indeed, technology roadmaps can no longer be elaborated independently of the products and applications that will take advantage of – and be enabled by – the technological advances. This is why COREnect takes every opportunity to foster the common work between the KDT and the SNS communities, organizing workshops co-located with the leading conferences of these two communities. This workshop is the first of those events.

EFECS, the European Forum for Electronic Components and Systems, is the leading European forum for the European Components and Systems (ECS) community, that is a large part of the future KDT community. It routinely attracts more than 600 participants every year, covering the whole value chain and bringing together industry, academia, and policy makers.

Further information about this event and registration is available here.

Early deployments of 5G features CfP@ IEEE GlobComms 2020

MWC Shanghai 2021

Hannover Messe 2021

EuCNC 6G Summit 2021

MWC Barcelona 2021