Newsletter 25 – July – August 2021

NextGenerationEU approved

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 :

• Cohesion, Resilience and Values: 426.7 billion EUR(+776.5 from NGEU)
• Natural Resources and Environment: 401 billion EUR(+18.9 from NGEU)
• Migration and Border Management: 25.7 billion EUR
• Security and Defence: 14.9 billion EUR
• Neighbourhood and the World: 110.6 billion EUR
• European Public Administration: 82.5 billion EUR

and

• Single Market, Innovation and Digital: 149.5 billion EUR (+11.5 from NGEU), of which 93.7 for Research and Innovation, 33.0 billion EUR for European Strategic Investments, 6.6 billion for single market and 15.15 billion EUR for Space. Horizon Europe is part of the Research and Innovation part with 86.12 billion EUR.  The rest is dedicated to energy-related activities (Euratom and ITER).

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.

First Horizon Europe strategic plan (2021-2024) released

Horizon Europe Info days took place between June 28th and July 9th.

RSPG Interim Opinion on WRC-23

• Agenda Item 1.2 considers possible identification of 6 GHz frequencies for IMT in Europe and amendment of 3300-3400 MHz allocations.
• Agenda Item 1.3 considers the upgrade of 3.6-3.8 GHz frequencies to the mobile service. The RSPG also considers that the 3.6-3.8 GHz frequencies could benefit 5G deployment and suggest to upgrade  the allocation of the 3 600-3 800 MHz band to the mobile service as it has already been identified for 5G.
• Agenda Item 1.18 focuses on spectrum needs and potential new allocations Mobile Satellite Services (2 010-2 025 MHz)
  service for future development of narrowband mobile-satellite systems. The RSPG mentions that the 2010-2025 MHz spectrum has to be protected for Earth-to-Space Satellite Services (EESS) and Programme Making and Social Events (PMSE).

The whole text is available here.

EU study on the future 5G supply ecosystem in Europe

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:

1. Incumbent players driving 5G: In this scenario, traditional vendors and Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) are shaping the ecosystem pulled by increasing demand for new services requiring high performance. Equipment from providers considered as ‘high risk vendors’ is used in non-sensitive areas only. Further opening of interfaces stimulates new equipment suppliers, which represents an opportunity for MNOs.
2. Slow pace of 5G Roll-Out: In this scenario, market competition remains the same or even decreases due to the exclusion of vendors because of geopolitical motivations and/or security concerns. Due to the low uptake of business-to-business (B2B) use cases, the overall 5G market size does not expand in Europe and the slow 5G rollout does not provide opportunities for new vendor solutions to be scaled in the short term.
3. Open RAN as a game-changer: In this scenario, Open RAN is a deep game-changer in the 5G supply chain with new players (mainly non-European, even with the possibility of GAFAMs coping this network segment) entering into the European RAN market. In this scenario, decentralized, disaggregated and fully virtualized Open RAN networks may serve Europe. Technological progress is potentially stimulated in the medium and long term, mainly due to increased market competition and new suppliers in the RAN domain.
4. 5G for Big Tech: In this scenario, network virtualisation and disaggregation of software and hardware change the landscape for network equipment, deployment and service provision in the long term. New business models based on Open RAN architectures and interfaces gain momentum, and new major players enter the market. In this scenario, foreign Big Tech companies increase their overall dominance in the European market on demand and supply sides alike.

Read more here.

4th Open Call funding Experts in ICT standardisation

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/  “

5G status in Europe: 28 5G countries

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).

• The 700 MHz band has been assigned in sixteen European countries (EU27 and the UK): Austria (September 2020), Czech Republic (November 2020), Cyprus (December 2020), Denmark (March 2019), France (November 2015), Finland (November 2016), Germany (June 2015), Greece (December 2020), Hungary (March 2020), Italy (October 2018), Luxembourg (2020), Netherlands (July 2020), Slovakia (November 2020), Slovenia (April 2021), Sweden (December 2018) and the UK (March 2021).
• Spectrum within 3.4-3.8 GHz frequency band has already been assigned in accordance with 5G technical conditions in 21 countries (EU-27 countries and the UK): Austria, Belgium (partial), Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal (partial), Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
• Spectrum within 26 GHz frequencies has already been assigned in five Member States: Denmark (April 2021), Italy (October 2018), Finland (June 2020), Greece (December 2020) and Slovenia (April 2021). In the UK and Germany, local licences are available 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.

5G status in Asia: massive subscriber uptake and deployment

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.

5G status in North America

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.