Partnering with China will help Europe speed up #5G deployment

On 14 September 2016, the European Commission published its long-awaited outline for the future European 5G deployment strategy. ChinaEU welcomes the timely adoption by the European Commission of its ‘5G for Europe’ Action Plan. The rollout of 5G is expected to enable and widely disseminate technologies, such as the Internet of Things, self-driving cars, autonomous drones, and Star Wars-inspired hologram phones.

It is predicted that 5G revenues may reach US$250 billion in 2025, with North America, Asia-Pacific, and Western Europe being the top markets. However, ChinaEU advocates that cooperation with China should be written explicitly in action plan, in particular for the implementation of advanced pre-commercial trials. China has already started a comprehensive 5G trial programme. Europe should not seek to reinvent the wheel but instead launch partnerships with China.

5G is not only important for the mobile communications industry, but for the whole economy. According to a 5G impact analysis report from Realwireless, 5G will bring huge benefits for vertical industries such as automobile, health care, transport and utilities with a total estimation of €95.9 billion. The World Bank calculates that with “a 10% increase in high speed Internet connections, economic growth increases by 1.3%” and leads to “democratization of innovation”.

5G capabilities will enable new business models to develop and new goods and services to be provided. ChinaEU therefore welcomes the Commission’s proposed action line that ”initial focus on ultra-fast broadband services should ensure compatibility with further development of standards for innovative use cases related to massive deployment of connected objects and the Internet of Things. The emergence of parallel, potentially conflicting, specifications developed outside global standardization bodies must be avoided”. The EU Commission and the member states have a clear role to play in this process.

ChinaEU also welcomes the invitation of the EU Commission to the Member States to work together “to eliminate these barriers in the interests of speedy and cost-effective deployment. In addition, other administrative aspects sometimes create unnecessary burdens for the installation of small cells, such as local planning procedures, high site rental charges, the variety of specific limits on electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions and of the methods required to aggregate them”. China provides in this area the proof that flexible administrative rules are the preliminary condition for speedy deployment of new technologies.

However, the Action plan lacks a specific action consisting in promoting joint projects with Chinese partners.  In view of the lead already taken by China and its main vendors in the testing of 5G system, the aim proposed by the Commission to “ensure Europe leadership in the context of the accelerated global agenda for the introduction of 5G”, is not realistic. Europe cannot go alone. Already today, Chinese vendors are playing a predominant role in the EU mobile and fixed broadband deployment in the EU. A more effective alternative would be partnering from the outset with the Chinese companies, that are now spearheading the development of 5G, and launching twin technological experiments, both in the EU and in China, such as for example ‘5G cities’. ‘5G cities’ would allow to showcase, in a real life environment, advanced pre-commercial trials of 5G IoT applications in key sectors.

The Commission advocates that standards would be made available promoting open innovation and opportunities for start-ups. To achieve this objective, the Commission should ensure that membership of the 5G-PPP - which was set up to prepare the 5G launch in the EU – would be extended to a larger number of companies, so as to allow the participation of ‘new entrants’ in the process.

Background

5G stands for ‘fifth generation’ wireless communication standard, to differentiate the technology currently being developed from the previous technologies:
1G – Voice services
2G – Improved voice and text messaging (GSM)
3G – Integrated voice and affordable mobile Internet (UMTS)
4G – High capacity mobile multimedia (LTE)

5G will affect our daily lives in many ways. To name few examples：

•   Mobile broadband is the key use case today and it is expected to continue to be one of the key use cases driving the requirements for 5G. However, 5G will go far beyond basic mobile internet access and covers rich interactive work, media and entertainment applications in the cloud or reality augmentations: Cloud storage and applications, Entertainment, for example cloud gaming (including ‘serious games’) and video streaming, augmented reality for entertainment and information retrieval.

•   The automotive sector is expected to be a key driver for 5G. For example, entertainment for passengers requires simultaneous high capacity and high mobility mobile broadband; augmented reality dashboards; remotely controlled or self-driving vehicles.

•  Smart cities and smart homes, often referred to as smart society, will be embedded with dense wireless sensor networks. Distributed networks of intelligent sensors will identify conditions for cost –and energy-efficient maintenance of the city or home.
•    The consumption and distribution of energy, including heat or gas, is becoming highly decentralized, creating the need for automated control of a very distributed sensor network. A smart grid interconnects such sensors, using digital information and communications technology to gather and react.

As the Commission acknowledges in its action plan, China is now implementing a comprehensive 5G trial programme, aiming at fully testing a complete 5G system before 2020. The programme runs over three phases: phase one, until end of 2018, is primarily R&D and validation of key technologies and subsystems; phase two, from 2018 to 2020, is about system and products R&D trials; phase 3, post 2020, is about gradual commercial introduction and application trials, with a likely focus on industrial applications. China has selected the 3,4 -3,6 GHz band for early trials and later introduction.

In its 5G strategy, the EU Commission puts forward the strategic target dates of 2018 for early networks, 2020 for fully-fledged commercial service in ‘pilot’ cities, and 2025 for uninterrupted coverage. China’s timetable for realizing 5G commercialization is thus more ambitious, but with giant telecoms vendor such as ZTE, Huawei, Datang Telecom, China is necessarily leading in the race. For example, ZTE’s pre-5G technology has successfully drawn a lot attention globally and has already started its pre-5G trials in China. At the same time, the national grand development plan of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area offers an early insight of a new business model for 5G deployment.

The Commission Action Plan calls for a united and sustained commitment by all parties, including the EU institutions, the Member States, the research and financial communities as well as the industry. The latter includes Chinese companies that are increasingly present in the EU. ChinaEU stresses therefore the indispensability of intense co-operation between the EU and China on 5G as a condition for the global take up and success of the new standard and the full realization of its potential.

ChinaEU is a business-led International Association aimed at intensifying joint research, business cooperation and mutual investments in Internet, Telecom and Hi-tech between China and Europe. ChinaEU provides a platform for constructive dialogue among industry leaders and top-level representatives of European Institutions and the Chinese government.

Share this article: