th

5 generation (5G) of
communication networks
Nokia Government Relations policy paper

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Nokia Government Relations policy paper

Background
The European Union had an early lead in mobile technology in the 1990s, in particular in 2nd
generation (2G) of mobile networks, called GSM. In the 4th generation (4G) of mobile technology,
known as Long-Term Evolution (LTE), Europe lags behind other leading markets in investments in
network deployments. This is a threat for Europe, given that 4G R&D and global standardization
was significantly influenced by European industry and collaborative research and roll-out is a
precondition for the 5th generation of communication systems (5G). It is a threat not only for the
telecom sector, it jeopardizes the short- and long-term success of the entire industry of Europe, as
telecom infrastructure and 5G are the basis for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 (the
Industrial Internet).
Europes leading know-how and collaborative culture are assets in complex, interoperable mobile
technology. While Europe leads in 5G technology development and standardization, Europe needs
to regain its lead in the deployment of new communication systems in 4G/LTE as well as 5G itself,
which will emerge 2018 (first pre-standardized network trials with pre-commercial hardware) and
2020 (first networks with commercial hardware). This requires a very ambitious pan-European
target that could galvanize Europes telecoms industry.
In order to make this a European reality, the EU needs to act immediately.

What is at stake for Europe?

Jobs & growth. 5G is a key technology for the entire European industrial base all vertical
industries will be effected (e.g. car industry, logistics, health care).

Innovation. Innovation will help to prepare for the next phase of industrialization and
societal innovations.

Research. 5G reinforces European lead, in particular in ultrafast broadband and Internet of

Things (including massive and critical machine-type-communication (MTC)).

Investments. Early lead would boost a positive investment cycle.

Harmonization. Europe could be in a position to lead in building a globally harmonized

standard.

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Why 5G matters for citizens?

Demand. Consumers generate an increasing amount of mobile traffic, which necessitates more
capacity and lower latency. 5G will offer an expected peak data rate higher than 10 Gbit/s
compared to the 450 Mbit/s LTE can offer today, combined with virtually zero latency, i.e. less
than 1 ms, meaning that the radio interface will not be the bottleneck even for the most
challenging use cases.
Societal innovations. 5G will support applications and industries of today and the future such as
innovative health care services, self-driving cars and next generation of industry automation
disrupting and renewing entire industries. 5G will mean stepping away from best effort towards
communication with highly increased reliability. Flexible integration of existing access
technologies such as LTE and Wi-Fi with new technologies creates a design that is future proof at
least until 2030 by re-using legacy investment.
Internet of Things. 5G will be designed for use cases expanding from humans to machines
requiring more of networks. 5G supports the huge growth of machine-to- machine type
communication, also called Internet of Things, through flexibility, low costs and low consumption
of energy. At the same time, 5G will be reliable and quick enough for even mission-critical
wireless control and automation tasks such as self- driving cars.
Energy and cost. 5G will yield lower costs and consumption of energy. Energy efficiency is an
integral part of the design paradigm of 5G, not an afterthought. Virtualized and scalable
technologies will further facilitate global adoption.

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Challenges
Harmonization. Various 5G initiatives compete to lead the definition of 5G: EUs 5G PPP (or 5G
Public-Private-Partnership), the flagship initiative under Horizon 2020; Chinas IMT-2020 (5G)
Promotion Group; the Japanese 2020 and 5GMF (or The Fifth Generation Mobile
Communications Promotion Forum), Koreas national research program supported by 5G Forum;
Russias 5GRUS program; and USAs 5G programs sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Harmonized and affordable spectrum. More harmonized and affordable spectrum is needed to
meet the capacity and coverage needs of 5G, in particular for communities beyond the reach of
wired broadband. Less than half of EU Member States allocated 800 MHz for mobile broadband
in time using existing policy instruments. Now a decisive and coordinated EU release of 700 MHz
is needed. In the future 5G will need additional spectrum above 6 GHz.
Lack of investments in deployment. In 2015, 13% of total connections have been LTE (4G)
connections in (geographical) Europe, compared to 47% in Japan, 51% in Northern America and
84% in South Korea. Additionally, Europe reached 70% 4G network coverage (by population),
whereas Northern America reached 98%, Japan 99% and South Korea 100%. Europe needs a
healthy operator ecosystem with operators of all sizes, including big operators that can compete
internationally. In addition the historic dichotomy between electronic communication services
and information society services, combined with heavier regulation of the former, is a
contributing factor to the lack of investment and creates an unlevel playing field. While the
European Commission digital single market plans might potentially solve the issue, its
implementation comes far too late1. Europe has an urgent need for conditions that boost
investment in LTE roll out. Investments in LTE support future investments in 5G.
Net Neutrality legislation. Implementation of the EU legislation on Net Neutrality should allow
operator innovation with specialized services everywhere in Europe under the same regulatory
conditions. Furthermore, critical machine-type-communication (MTC) will require high
benchmarks for Quality-of-Service (QoS), beyond what can be achieved with a best-effort
approach.
Virtualization, telco cloud, big data and analytics are emerging key technologies enabling
service agility, scalability, and efficiency of mobile networks. 5G networks will need to take full
advantage of these technologies in order to deliver on the expectations towards 5G.
Investment in 5G standardization will be worth billions of Euros for infrastructure vendors. If
infrastructure vendors do not see a profitable return on investment for standardization through
licensing fees on IPRs they are more likely to opt for proprietary innovations.

EC Legislative proposals to reform the current telecoms rules in 2016; implementation likely towards the end of the decade.
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Recommendations for policy makers

Continue to push 5G as a main driver and prerequisite for the Digital Single Market in
Europe and its flagship initiative. Coordinate between EU level and regional research
initiatives. Leverage EUs 5G PPP initiative for active collaboration with industry, small and
medium-sized enterprises and research community.

We propose a clear and ambitious timeline for the European road to 5G to galvanize
Europes telecoms industry:
2018 A major European event equipped with pre-standardized 5G networks with
pre-commercial hardware on the event sites (e.g. Eurovision Song Contest,
Champions League Final or European Athletic Championships).
2020 UEFA 2020 with 5G networks with commercial hardware in several involved
European cities (like London, Munich, Rome, Amsterdam and Copenhagen)
2025 All major European traffic routes are equipped with 5G networks, in order
to enable the connected car and train

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European ambition should be to lead and not to follow on the road to 5G.
Continue to negotiate on international level, in order to achieve a globally harmonized
definition and standard for 5G.
Create new policy instruments for a quicker allocation and assignment of affordable
spectrum and prepare to allocate additional frequency spectrum. Europe should be the
early mover in planning and allocating future spectrum for mobile broadband below and
above 6GHz in order to allow early testing and piloting in Europe.
Boosting investment immediately should be the overriding goal today and for the
forthcoming overhaul of the telecom regulation.
Competition rules should allow more market driven consolidation within and between
Member States.
Implementation of EU legislation on Net Neutrality should allow innovation in all stages of
the value chain by offering specialized services, many of which have not been invented yet.
Specialized services, together with proper traffic management, incentivize optimum
capacity rollout. They increase, therefore, investments in networks and contribute to an
upward spiral of increasing economic activity.
Data protection regulation should facilitate the transition to information centric
networks based on telco cloud, by allowing flexible collection and use of network-internal
data, while respecting data privacy and data protection requirements.
5G necessitates a strong and vibrant standardization system that incentivizes companies
to continue investing in innovations for inclusion in open standards available to all. For this
to continue, regulation and policies need to foster efficient licensing of standard
essential patent (SEP) portfolios on a global level and consequently provide innovators
with an adequate return on investment.

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For further information, please contact:

Leo Baumann
Head of Nokia EU Representative Office
leo.baumann@nokia.com
Arne Deubelius
Head of Government Relations Germany
arne.deubelius@nokia.com
Werner Mohr
Head of Research Alliances
Chair of the Board of 5G Infrastructure Association
werner.mohr@nokia.com
Peter Merz
Head of Radio Systems
peter.merz@nokia.com

On the Internet: http://networks.nokia.com/about-us/government-relations-and-policies

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Public
Nokia is a registered trademark of Nokia Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned herein may
be trademarks or trade names of their respective owners.

Nokia
Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy
P.O. Box 1
FI-02022
Finland
Visiting address:
Karaportti 3,
ESPOO,
Finland
Switchboard +358 (71) 400 4000
Product code C401-01025-R-201407-1-EN
Nokia Solutions and Networks 2015

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