NextGenerationEU approved |
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The NextGenerationEU (NGEU) which is the temporary instrument designed to boost the recovery totalling 806.9 billion EUR for a green, digital and resilient Europe (current prices) was drawn up in July 2020 has been approved by the 27 Member States early June 2021.
NGEU will feed seven different programmes. 90% of the NGEU will be devoted to the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF, entered into force in February 2021). At the core of NGEU, the RRF is an instrument for providing grants and loans to support investments. 20 % of the Recovery and Resilience Facility funds will be invested in the EU’s digital transformation and 37% to climate investments and reforms. NGEU will feed several topics :
and
On 31 May 2021, the Own Resources Decision has been ratified by all Member States in line with their constitutional requirements. The Commission can now finance the recovery under NextGenerationEU. On 15 June 2021, the Commission raised €20 billion in its first NextGenerationEU transaction. During summer 2021, the EU started to disburse billions EUR pre-financing to Member States. To benefit from this plan, Member States need to submit their national recovery plans to the European Commission. Almost twenty recovery plans or draft recovery plans are already available. Details can be accessed here in local languages. To date, plans from eighteen Member States have been endorsed by the European Commission, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. |
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First Horizon Europe strategic plan (2021-2024) released |
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In March 2021, the European Commission adopted the main work programme of Horizon Europe for the period 2021-2022 which will receive 14.7 billion EUR in funding for a green and digital Europe. 5.8 billion EUR will be invested in research and innovation to support the European Green Deal. The development of core digital technologies will get around 4 billion EUR over 2021-2022. Investments of around 1.9 billion EUR will go to repairing the immediate economic and social damage brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. The strategic plan prepared the contents of Horizon Europe work programmes. The work programme of Horizon Europe for 2021-2022 also includes dedicated actions to support cooperation through multilateral initiatives. The Work Programme (WP) 7 on digital, industry and space is available here including calls on laser-based technologies, Artificial Intelligence, data and robotics, quantum technologies, beyond 5G/6G…
Horizon Europe Info days took place between June 28th and July 9th. |
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RSPG Interim Opinion on WRC-23 |
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The Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG) assists and advises the European Commission on radio spectrum policy issues. In June 2021, it published its interim opinion on the EU priorities for WRC-23. The final opinion will be released in 2022.
The whole text is available here. |
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EU study on the future 5G supply ecosystem in Europe |
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The Commission has published a study on 5G market trends and plausible developments of the 5G supply market looking to 2030.
The study considers four possible scenarios, which are driven by factors such as evolving technology, standards readiness, and Radio Access Network (RAN) disaggregation initiatives. Economic, technological, environmental, and societal impacts are analysed for each scenario, covering key European Commission and stakeholder concerns.
The four scenarios are:
Read more here. |
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4th Open Call funding Experts in ICT standardisation |
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The “4th Open Call under the StandICT.eu 2023 initiative is on! This open call is an opportunity for European experts to request direct funding for their engagement in international ICT Standardisation organizations, work groups or technical committees.
The OC#4 online applications can be submitted until the 15th of September (17:00 CET). Individual professionals & experts contributing to standardisation in the chosen horizontal ICT fields ( cloud computing, IoT, 5G, Cybersecurity and data) or diverse vertical ICT fields (AI, Industry 4.0, eHealth, Quantum technologies etc.) can request up to 10KEUR of direct funding and for a max. project duration of 6 months.
More information & Applications: www.standict.eu/standicteu-2023-4th-open-call Twitter: @Stand_ICT LinkedIn: company/standict-eu/ “ |
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5G status in Europe: 28 5G countries |
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The number of European 5G alive networks keeps growing. 5G is now available in 25 Member States (in EU27) and in 28 EU countries (including Norway, Switzerland and the UK). Fifteen countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK) are now full5G countries with all players providing 5G commercial services. Only Lithuania and Portugal have not launched 5G services as at August 1st, 2021 so far. In Russia, three players (MegaFon, MTS and Tele2 Russia) plan 5G in 2021. In Ukraine, MNOs have recently focused on 5G. It is looming: Lifecell, Vodafone and Kyivstar are planning to launch 5G services in 2021.
Europe has seen much progress and intense spectrum activity in the last weeks. Seven EU countries have assigned spectrum or made spectrum available on demand subject to coordination in all 5G pioneer bands: Denmark, Italy, Finland, Germany (26 GHz on demand), Greece, Slovenia and the UK (26 GHz on demand).
Multiband auction in Portugal is ongoing. Portugal is auctioning 700 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.6 GHz and 3.6 GHz spectrum. |
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5G status in Asia: massive subscriber uptake and deployment |
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5G has been launched in a limited number of Asian countries. 5G services are available in 16 mobile markets including Australia, China mainland, Guam, HongKong, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Maldives, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Tajikistan, Taiwan, Thailand, and Uzbekistan, raising 42 alive 5G networks. 7 out of these 16 Asian 5G markets are full5G markets with all players providing 5G services. 5G will not be available in less-advanced markets before year-end 2021, 2022 or 2023. 5G could be launched in Malaysia in the second half 2021. In India, the India’s Department of Telecom concluded a spectrum auction including 700, 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300 and 2500 MHz bands on March 1st, 2021. These frequencies are not especially for 5G. Nevertheless, it is worth noting that 700 MHz spectrum did not see any bids at all for the second time despite a sharp decrease in reserve prices.
Australia has fully assigned 26 GHz and 28 GHz spectrum (24.7-29.5 GHz) in two stages. The first one took place in December 2020 for spectrum in 24.7-25.1 GHz and 27.5-29.5 GHz. The remaining part of 26 and 28 GHz spectrum (25.1-27.5 GHz) was auctioned in April 2021. Later in 2021, Australia plans to auction lower frequencies for 5G (850/900 MHz). South Korea has decided to assign spectrum administratively spectrum for local private networks. 100 MHz (ten blocks of 10 MHz) in the 4.7 GHz band (4720-4820 MHz) and 600 MHz (12 blocks of 50 MHz) in the 28 GHz band (28.9-29.5 GHz) will be available by year-end 2021 to verticals. In 2020, 5G succeeded in making a massive entrance in Asian advanced mobile markets. In 2021, it continues on the same path. 5G adoption in China continues to grow at an unprecedented pace. The country ended June 2021 with 495.2 million 5G subscriptions an uptake of more than 130 million subscribers since January 1st, i.e. 28.8 million net adds per month beating the average monthly uptake of 26 million in 2020! Even if somehow overstated, 5G subscriber numbers are impressive in China. In South Korea, 16.5 million 5G subscribers were registered at end June 2021. In Japan, MIC announced the country registered 14.2 million 5G subscribers as at end March 2021. With regards to base stations, figures are also impressive: as at end March 2021, a total of 819,000 5G base stations were registered up from 771,000 as at year-end 2020 (an average uptake of 16,000 base stations per month). Asian mobile players have also started migrating to 5G standalone, including Singapore MNOs, KT in South Korea. |
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5G status in North America |
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Major US and Canadian mobile network operators have launched 5G commercial services. The US players were among the first to launch 5G services on mmwave frequencies without access to mid frequencies (except Sprint). This led to lower experience than expected. By using Sprint 2.1 GHz spectrum, T-Mobile USA has significantly increased its footprint.
Players are now focussing on network deployment. All major US cities enjoyed 5G services even partially as of mid-2021. Coverage has increased slightly with players using Massive MIMO, DSS and low frequencies. Speeds delivered over 5G are higher compared to 4G with no details on how faster they are. AT&T advertises “improved” speeds while Verizon mentioned “faster” speeds for 5G without any backing figures disclosed. US mobile players have also started migrating to 5G standalone. T-Mobile has launched 5G SA. Dish is expected to launch 5G services in the third quarter 2021. Deployment in the recently auctioned 3.5 GHz spectrum should begin at the end of 2021. Auction 107 (3.70-3.98 GHz) which ended in February 2021 was the most expensive auction ever (more than AWS-3) generating 81.2 billion USD (67.2 billion EUR). In addition to the bids, spectrum holders will have to pay for the relocation of existing users estimated at a little less than 10 billion USD (8.3 billion EUR). The FCC continues to open up more spectrum. The 2.5 GHz frequencies (Auction 108) will be auctioned later in 2021. The 3.45-3.55 GHz could be made available for 5G in Auction 110 in early October 2021. A number of additional spectrum bands will be made available from 2022. The auction of 50 MHz in 1300-1350 MHz frequencies is considered. The auction of another mmwave band (probably the 42 GHz) is expected in 2022. After 2022, the lower 3 GHz, the 4.8 GHz and the 7 GHz bands could be sold. Canada has concluded the bidding stage of the 3.5 GHz (3450-3650 MHz) spectrum auction mid-July 2021. Bids raised unprecedented levels at almost 9 billion CAD (5.4 billion EUR) shared by twenty bidders. The 3650-3900 MHz auction is expected in 2023. |
IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking |
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Online event – September 7-10 The inaugural IEEE International Mediterranean Conference on Communications and Networking (MeditCom) will take place 7-10 September 2021 in Athens, Greece. IEEE MeditCom will bring together visionaries in academia, research labs and industry from all over the world to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, with programming that will address many of the outstanding challenges that exist in the areas of communications and networking. The conference will solicit research papers on a wide range of research topics, spanning both theoretical and systems research along with vertical technologies. There will be a Special Session co-organized by 5G-Routes, ICT4CART and 5G-Croco on the topic of ‘AI Assisted Technologies for Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM)’. Further information on IEEE MeditCom website.
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5G-ACIA 2nd Web Seminar Series – “Exposure of 5G Capabilities for Connected Industry and Automation Applications” |
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Online event – September 14 5G-ACIA’s mission is to ensure the best possible application of 5G technology and of 5G networks for the industrial domain. Join this last 5G-ACIA Webinar to explore how 5G-ACIA is working on the framework design for Industrial 5G and ask your questions to the experts from 5G-ACIA. 5G-ACIA organises its 2nd webinar series with four seminars, one per month from 26th May to 13th September 2021. The 26 May session was on “Industrial 5G – Where are we?”. The 14 July session was on “Using Digital Twins to integrate 5G into Production Networks”. The next event will take place on September 13, 2021 and focus on “Exposure of 5G Capabilities for Connected Industry and Automation Applications”. More information here. You can register online here. |
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Joint Workshop on 5G, Edge computing and IoT organised by the European Digital SME Alliance and the NetworldEurope SME Working Group |
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Online event – September 16, 10:00-13:00 CEST The European DIGITAL SME Alliance and NetworldEurope’s SME Working Group share a common understanding of the importance of cooperation and knowledge sharing for benefits of digital SMEs. They agreed to organize this joint workshop, aiming to highlight SMEs work on some of the enabling technology, namely 5G, Edge Computing and IoT. The workshop consists of two panels on (1) Market Access and uptake of SMEs solution and (2) Technical aspects of 5G. On Thursday, September 16, from 10.00 to 13.00 CET, the European DIGITAL SME Alliance and the NetworldEurope SME Working Group invite you to their first joint online workshop on 5G, Edge Computing and IoT. The workshop will discuss issues related to opportunities and challenges of market access and uptake of SME solutions. It will also discuss security-related issues in 5G, IoT, Edge computing, Machine Learning, Quantum computing and other enabling technologies, with focus on cybersecurity standards and certification. Participation is free of charge. Registration and agenda here. |
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5GIA and TSDSI online 5G Tests & Pilots webinar |
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5G-IA and TSDSI are pleased to jointly invite you to an online webinar on 5G Tests & Pilots (T&P) on September 22nd, 2021 from 11:00 am until 1:00 pm CEST / 14:30-16:30 IST. The webinar is open to all, pre-registration is kindly requested. A Zoom link will be provided (the session will be recorded and published). |
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5GAA Workshop on “5G: Connected Mobility in the Digital Age” |
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Online event – September 28, 9:00 am-3:00 pm CEST This event is intended to advance the dialogue between high-level institutional and industry stakeholders on current challenges in the field of connected and automated mobility. Representatives from the European institutions, local and national authorities, and 5GAA members will discuss ongoing challenges for connected and automated mobility and provide solutions by presenting the capabilities and deployment models of the Cellular Vehicle to Everything (“C-V2X”) technology.
Agenda:
Confirmed speakers:
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IEEE/ACM 25th International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-RT) |
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Online event – September 27-29 The 2021 edition of the IEEE/ACM 25th International Symposium on Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications (DS-RT) will be held in Valencia, Spain. DS-RT 2021 serves as a forum for simulationists from academia, industry and research labs, for presenting recent research results in Distributed Simulation and Real Time Applications. DS-RT 2021 targets the growing overlap between large distributed simulations and real time applications, such as mirror world simulations and collaborative virtual environments.
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ITS World Congress 2021 |
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Hamburg, Germany – October 11-15
The Congresses are the yearly celebration of smart mobility: they underline the importance of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), particularly in cities and regions where they are hosted, and provide an excellent platform that supports the education, thought-leadership, business development, and the overall steady growth of the smart mobility industrial growth. They include live, interactive and thought-provoking sessions where industry experts present the latest developments in ITS, showcasing and demonstrating cutting-edge technology within the event’s spacious exhibition, technical tours and live demonstration opportunities.
Further information on ITS World Congress website.
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IEEE 5G World Forum |
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Virtual + Montreal, Canada – October 13-15 The 2021 IEEE Fourth 5G World Forum will bring together representatives from industry, academia, and research to share their insights and discuss advances in 5G and beyond as well as address challenges in future networks deployment.
While there is uncertainty about the state of travel and convening in October 2021 in Montreal, the event has been planned as a predominantly face-to-face meeting that includes provisions for remote participation and attendance for those who cannot attend in person For more information: https://ieee-wf-5g.org/ |
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5G-HEART and 5G-TOURS Tele Health Workshop on TeleHealth Solutions powered by 5G |
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Virtual, October 22 – 9:00-13:00 CEST The 5G-HEART and 5G-TOURS Joint Workshop on Tele-Health Solutions Powered by 5G, that will take place on 22nd October 2021, 09:00 – 13:00 CEST. The aim of the workshop is to present and discuss upcoming opportunities in the healthcare sector enabled by technology developments in 5G. Register online here. |
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TCCA’S Critical Communications World 2021 |
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Madrid, Spain – November 3-5 Critical Communications World brings mission-critical and business-critical end-users and manufacturers all together, More information at: https://www.critical-communications-world.com/ |
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IEEE Global Communications Conference 2021 |
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Madrid, Spain – December 7-11
The 2021 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM) will be held in Madrid, Spain, from 7 -11 December 2021. Themed “Connecting Cultures around the Globe,” this flagship conference of the IEEE Communications Society will feature a comprehensive high-quality technical program including 12 symposia, selected areas in communications track and a variety of tutorials and workshops. IEEE GLOBECOM 2021 will also include an attractive Industry program aimed at practitioners, with keynotes and panels from prominent research, industry and government leaders, business and industry panels, and vendor exhibits.
More information here. |
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EAI CROWNCOM 2021 |
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Shijiazhuang, China – December 10-12 CROWNCOM 2021 aims at presenting new research results and perspectives of cognitive radio systems for 5G and beyond 5G networks, and will provide a forum for exchanging ideas, discussing solutions, and sharing experiences among researchers and experts from academia, industry, standards, and policy. Following the success of last edition, the main scope of CROWNCOM 2021 is on innovations and applications with the cognitive-based solutions in the context of 5G and beyond. Cognitive Radio and Sharing mechanisms have been considered for sub 6GHz bands broadband systems mainly. Hotspot research topics on Cognitive Radio in various contexts include spectrum sharing, dynamic spectrum access, increased system flexibility through access to rich context information, virtualization and management, etc. With the development of intelligent algorithms, the new 5G paradigm and its expected evolutions into 6G raised unprecedented expectations in terms of broadband services, latency and convergence of broadband systems with IoT networks. In this context, CROWNCOM 2021 will encompass all research aspects related to 5G and beyond systems that may benefit from the introduction of cognitive mechanisms, including most recent innovations, trends, examples of state-of-the-art industrial deployments, contributions to standards and policies. Besides, to provide a forum for the world-class researchers to gather and share their research achievements and ideas, all papers related to communication signal processing, satellite communications and networking, aerial communications networking and protocols, IoT and IoE, electronic countermeasures, and artificial intelligence are solicited. EAI CROWNCOM 2021 will be held by Hebei Normal University in Shijiazhuang City, capital of the Hebei Province. Shijiazhuang City is ‘National Advanced City of Science and Education’, with strong scientific and technological capability. Starting from 2020, 5G will be commercially available on a large scale, and the coverage of 5G networks in cities and hot spots will be improved, gradually extending to rural areas. In Shijiazhuang, there are 36 scenic areas of Class A and 33 demonstration sites for industrial and agricultural tourism. The people of Shijiazhuang welcome friends from all over the world. More information here. |
The editor of the 5G PPP newsletter on behalf of the Full5G Project is Carole Manero, IDATE DigiWorld, CS94167 – 34092 Montpellier Cedex 5, France. This document reflects -only the views of its authors.