Chief executives from Europe’s 10 largest telecoms groups have been summoned to a meeting by Brussels’ digital commissioner to speed up and implement a strategy to deploy next generation 5G mobile services.
Regulators are worried that Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea will lead the development of a technology that will become essential to digital services, according to people familiar with the thinking of the commission.
In a letter to telecoms bosses seen by the Financial Times, Günther Oettinger, European commissioner for digital economy, wrote that “Europe must be a leader in this area”.
The letter says Mr Oettinger wants to create “closer EU co-ordination to achieve a timely deployment of 5G” and to create a “home market” in Europe for 5G products and services.
The meeting will discuss how to encourage “strategic investments infrastructure” and create an “action plan” to take 5G deployment beyond simply research.
The letter has been sent to the chief executives of BT, Deutsche Telekom, Telecom Italia, Orange, Vodafone, Nokia and Ericsson to arrange a meeting on Tuesday.
5G technology is being developed in research labs around the world but the term has already come to mean the creation of an almost instant mobile internet that will underpin services that require constant data links such as connected cars and homes.
Telecoms companies are in a global race to establish the standards that will enable 5G-based equipment, even if many countries are only just adapting to 4G systems that already allow fast internet connections over mobile devices.
Countries such as China and South Korea are investing heavily in 5G development work, with the latter expecting to have a service ready for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Most telecoms companies do not expect to have a commercial form of 5G available until after 2020.
Creating and owning the patents to a new global technology could be lucrative to regional telecoms groups, which could also generate sales of 5G-related devices and infrastructure equipment.
The commission confirmed that the meeting would not touch on its plans to liberalise the EU’s rules on spectrum, which are expected in February.
Brussels has made reform of telecoms rules one of its main aims for 2016, with a new package due by the end of the summer according to Mr Oettinger.
He believes the legal framework of the telecoms industry is more than a decade old, leaving it looking outdated.
“Back then we talked only of fixed and mobile telephony,” Mr Oettinger said.
“Now the telecoms sector has spread into other fields, data services and digital services. Modernisation of the telecom framework is something that is on the cards this year.”
During a press conference on Monday, Mr Oettinger hinted that regulation should be used to increase “fair competition” in both the broadcasting and telecoms sectors.
The commissioner has been critical of companies such as Google that have blurred the lines between internet, broadcasting and telecoms sectors, arguing that they benefit from lighter regulation than their traditional peers.