New research from Analysys Mason points to potentially significant benefits to the economies of member states if operators focus their 5G investments:
“We estimate that the open innovation platform of full 5G networks in Europe will be able to deliver EUR208 billion of benefits at a cost of approximately EUR36 billion between 2025 and 2040.”
The benefits will be focused around application clusters and, Analysys Mason argues, European industrial policy should initially focus on the deployment of 5G infrastructure around smart production and logistics.
5G rollout in the UK has been dominated in recent months by security concerns over Huawei’s equipment. UK telcos were banned from buying Huawei 5G kit from the end of 2020 with operators prevented from installing the company’s equipment in 5G networks from September 2021. A new 5G Supply Chain Diversification Strategy was published by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport in late 2020. This would involve greater support for incumbent suppliers and accelerating the adoption of open-interface and interoperable technologies. This seems to be in line with developments across Europe where a more “open” 5G environment is desired by regulators.