News about 5G

The Commission has adopted a legislative proposal for the upcoming European partnership on Smart Networks and Services (SNS) towards 6G.

The 5G Infrastructure Association (5G IA) is preparing for the next chapter in the mobile communications story with the new Smart Networks and Services (SNS) European Partnership in the framework of the Horizon Europe programme, and is expanding its membership.

A new study by the European Commission and the European Investment Bank highlights Europe’s need to increase its investments significantly in 5G digital ventures to unleash the full potential of 5G innovations.

The Commission has proposed to set up 10 new European Partnerships between the European Union, Member States and/or the industry. The goal is to speed up the transition towards a green, climate neutral and digital Europe, and to make European industry more resilient and competitive. The EU will provide nearly €10 billion of funding that the partners will match with at least an equivalent amount of investment.

The European Commission has adopted its legislative proposal for a strategic European partnership on Smart Networks and Services as a Joint Undertaking, with a public R&I investment of €900 million over the new long-term budget period 2021-2027. The Joint Undertaking will coordinate research activities on 6G technology under Horizon Europe as well as 5G deployment initiatives under the Connecting Europe Facility Digital and other programmes.

The Commission has tasked the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity, ENISA, to prepare the EU's cybersecurity certification scheme for 5G networks that will help address risks related to technical vulnerabilities of the networks and further enhance their cybersecurity. Certification plays a critical role in increasing trust and security in digital products and services – however, at the moment, there are various security certification schemes for IT products, including 5G networks, in Europe.

On 18 December, EU Member States presented a report that compiles their proposed best practices for cutting the cost of network rollout and for providing timely access to radio spectrum for 5G. Today’s report marks the first step towards developing the Toolbox of best practices, following the Commission’s Recommendation from September 2020. The report gathers the measures, which Member States reported as the most efficient in those two areas, identifying main trends and providing the finest examples for improving connectivity.

In this pre-commercial procurement, the university of Murcia aims to equip their infrastructure with a collective intelligence that improves campus resource management and enables the university to offer new services. Innovative solutions should improve current smart cities/campus solutions based on opportunities offered by advanced Internet of Things technologies for data capture, fast broadband 5G communications, distributed computing and integration of Artificial Intelligence in decision making. Deadline to submit offers: 28/12/2020

The cities of Copenhagen, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Paris, Tallinn and Stavanger invite innovators/companies to submit offers for their AI4CITIES pre-commercial procurement. This aims to develop breakthrough AI solutions - in combination with other enabling technologies such as big data application, 5G, edge computing and IoT - to accelerate the Cities' transition to carbon neutrality, in particular for smart mobility and energy. Deadline for submission of offers: 28/2/2021

Earlier this week, the Commission opened a public consultation, as part of the review of the Broadband Cost Reduction Directive, to collect views, until 2 March 2021, on incentivising the rollout of fast broadband networks, including fibre and 5G. The Directive, introduced in 2014, aims to enable fast electronic communications networks for people across the EU by reducing the related costs.