5 th generation (5G) of communication networks Nokia Government Relations policy paper Page 1 Nokia Government Relations policy paper
Background The European Union had an early lead in mobile technology in the 1990s, in particular in 2 nd 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. Europe s leading know-how and collaborative culture are assets in complex, interoperable mobile technology. Europe can regain its lead in the next generation called 5G, which will arrive after 2020, but work needs to start now. What is at stake for Europe? Jobs & growth. 5G is a key technology for European industrial base in network technologies. Innovation. Helps to prepare for next phase of industrialization and societal innovations. Research. 5G reinforces European lead, in particular in ultrafast broadband and Internet of Things. Investments. Early lead would boost a positive investment cycle. Harmonization. Europe could be in a position to lead in building a globally harmonized standard. Page 2
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 300 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 the future such as innovative health care services, self-driving cars and next generation of industry automation. 5G will mean stepping away from best effort towards truly reliable communication. 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. 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-tomachine 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 selfdriving cars. Energy and cost. 5G will 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. Taking all of these factors together, 5G could bring Internet access to a larger group of people and things. Challenges Harmonization. Various 5G initiatives compete to lead the definition of 5G: EU s 5G PPP (or 5G Public-Private-Partnership), the flagship initiative under Horizon 2020; China s IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Group; the Japanese 2020 and Beyond Ad-Hoc Group; Korea s national research program supported by 5G Forum; Russia s, 5GRUS program; and USA s 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. In the future 5G will need additional spectrum from 3.5 GHz to 100 GHz. Page 3
Lack of investments. In 2012 the EU had 6% of LTE (4G) connections, compared with 47% in USA, 27% in South Korea and 13% in Japan. 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. Net Neutrality legislation. The EU legislation on Net Neutrality should allow operator innovation with specialized services, which will be a key for 5G, subject to transparency and other appropriate safeguards. 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 they are more likely to opt for proprietary innovations. Recommendations for policy makers Make 5G into a flagship initiative of the EU Digital Agenda for the next legislature. Coordinate between EU level and regional research initiatives. Leverage EU s 5G PPP initiative for active collaboration with industry, small and medium-sized enterprises and research community. Negotiate internationally to make possible a globally harmonized definition and standard for 5G. Create new policy instruments for a quicker allocation and assignment of affordable spectrum, such as the spectrum harmonization proposed in Single Market for Telecoms, especially for 700 MHz. Europe should be the early mover in planning and allocating future spectrum for mobile broadband between 3.5 and 100 GHz in order to allow testing and piloting in Europe. Boosting investment should be the overriding goal and reason to overhaul telecom regulation. Competition rules should allow more market driven consolidation within a Member State. Page 4
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 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, access to injunctive relief for standard essential patents (SEPs) cannot be diminished without introducing an alternative mechanism to ensure efficient licensing and consequently provide innovators with an adequate return on investment. For further information, please contact: Kristo Lehtonen, Head of European Policies, +32 (471) 927177, kristo.lehtonen@nsn.com Leo Baumann, Head of Nokia EU Representative Office, +32 (475) 690 955, leo.baumann@nokia.com Werner Mohr, Head of Research Alliances, Chair of the Board of 5G Infrastructure Association, +49 (89) 5159 35117, werner.mohr@nsn.com On the Internet: www.nsn.com/governmentrelations Page 5
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