There were 114 operator 5G trials underway in the EU as of mid-September, according to a 5G Observatory by iDate for the European Commission. The report details the progress in developing the next-generation mobile networks, two years since the EU launched its 5G action plan.
Just one operator has a 5G commercial network working in the EU: Finland's Elisa, which launched its network in June in Tampere and Estonia's capital Tallinn. The report's authors expect more networks to launch in 2019, once 5G devices start coming on the market.
The most common frequency band for testing 5G in Europe has been 3.6 GHz. There has been little use of the 26 GHz band, which the report suggests is due to market expectations that mmWave devices will take longer to develop.
A majority of the EU states have published some kind of 5G roadmap, some more specific than others. However, the release of spectrum in the identified pioneer bands is still slow. Only three states have awarded the 700 MHz band, with Sweden to follow in December, and just five have licensed frequencies in the 3.4-3.8 GHz range.
Countries where 5G trials have been most active are Spain, France, Italy, Germany, the UK, Finland, Romania and Switzerland. Media and entertainment are the most common applications, with 28 trials, followed by automotive with 12 trials, and throughput and latency are the parameters most often tested.
