{"id":20968,"date":"2025-04-02T12:43:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T11:43:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/?p=20968"},"modified":"2025-04-02T12:43:26","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T11:43:26","slug":"digital-infrastructure-investments-are-key-to-boosting-europes-global-competitiveness-according-to-new-gsma-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/?p=20968","title":{"rendered":"Digital infrastructure investments are key to boosting Europe\u2019s global competitiveness, according to new GSMA report"},"content":{"rendered":"

The GSMA\u2019s Mobile Economy Europe report reveals 5G adoption in Europe will soar to 80% by 2030, boosting the economy by \u20ac164 billion \u2013 but policy reforms are key to securing critical network investment<\/strong><\/p>\n

5G accounted for 30% of mobile connections in Europe at the end of 2024 \u2013 equivalent to 200 million connections \u2013 against a global average of 24%, according to the GSMA\u2019s annual Mobile Economy Europe report .
\n5G will become the dominant mobile technology on the continent by 2026 and already accounts for the majority of connections in Germany and Switzerland, while adoption rates in Denmark, Finland, Norway and the UK have exceeded 40%. By 2030, it will provide an additional \u20ac164 billion boost to the overall economy, with 80% of the continent\u2019s connections forecast to be 5G, compared to 4G\u2019s 18%, by the end of this decade.
\nHowever, in its 5G adoption, Europe continues to lag behind other advanced regions such as North America, East Asia and the Gulf Cooperation Council states, where many operators are now shifting their attention to the next generation of networks, with urgent policy reforms required to drive a step-change in access to investment across the continent to keep it competitive globally.<\/p>\n

Maximising 5G\u2019s potential<\/strong>
\nOne promising area is in advanced 5G technologies such as 5G Standalone (SA) and 5G-Advanced, which are gaining traction and will help to unlock new use cases and monetisation opportunities.
\nIn Europe, operators are beginning to deploy 5G SA, which does not rely on LTE (Long Term Evolution) to operate, providing opportunities for new applications like network slicing. As of September 2024, 18 European operators had launched 5G SA services, including recent launches from EE in the UK and Free in France. In addition, 5G-Advanced is set to deliver new solutions for enterprises, enabling uplink and multicast services at better latency, increasing accuracy for extended reality applications and improving the reliability of AI.
\nHowever, unless key regulatory challenges that restrict investment capacity in the European sector are resolved, the increased adoption of these technologies in Europe will progress more slowly. Digital infrastructure will be key to helping Europe sustain global competitiveness, laying the foundations for advanced technologies but also supporting the expected three-fold rise in mobile data traffic by 2030.
\nThe GSMA\u2019s Chief Regulatory Officer, John Giusti, said: \u201cEurope is at a crossroads in its development of the digital infrastructure that its businesses and citizens will need to succeed. It is concerning to see it falling further and further behind other large markets around the world.
\n\u201cThe mobile industry brings more than \u20ac1 trillion to Europe\u2019s economy as well as millions of jobs, and its role as a key enabler of commerce, logistics and innovation needs to be prioritised and strengthened.
\n\u201cUrgent action is needed from the European Commission and other authorities within the European Union to deliver the policy reforms that Europe\u2019s digital economy needs to support strong, sustained network innovation and to re-establish a leadership position in the global technology marketplace by 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sustaining Europe\u2019s global competitiveness<\/strong>
\nAddressing Europe\u2019s digital infrastructure needs is an important first step towards re-energising the European telecoms sector as an engine of competitiveness and prosperity. The benefits of increased investments will not be restricted to the telecoms and technology sectors but will be felt across every other sector.
\nTo this end, the report recommends action points to support policymakers at the European Commission in building a competitive, secure and sustainable ecosystem. These include:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Completing the Digital Single Market to allow the mobile industry to develop and deploy services on a cross-border or pan-EU basis
\n\u2022 Implementing additional measures to ensure fairness in the internet value chain
\n\u2022 Initiating a review of the EU Merger Regulation and taking a more long-term view on investment and innovation effects
\n\u2022 Establishing a pro-investment and more predictable approach to EU spectrum policy
\n\u2022 Supporting the sustainability efforts of mobile operators<\/p>\n

European operators and AI<\/strong>
\nEuropean operators are at the forefront of AI and generative AI (genAI) development, with over a third (36%) having widely deployed genAI across multiple business areas. The report spotlights recent applications covering network optimisation, security enhancement and customer service improvements from European operators including Deutsche Telekom, EE, Orange and Vodafone.
\nOperators in Europe are increasingly forming regional and global partnerships to strengthen their genAI capabilities and pave the way for new business models and revenue streams. For example, Vodafone recently agreed a ten-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to enhance customer service and digital transformation through AI. Meanwhile, Deutsche Telekom is collaborating with multinational partners to enhance telecoms-specific large language models.
\nTo foster responsible AI, operators are also prioritising ethical practices to ensure fairness, protect users and reduce inequalities; the EU\u2019s AI Act sets regulatory standards for responsible AI, while the GSMA Responsible AI Maturity Roadmap offers a framework for ethical and sustainable AI use.<\/p>\n

Other key findings from the report include:
\n\u2022 The mobile industry added \u20ac1.1 trillion of economic value to the European economy in 2023, representing 5% of European GDP. The mobile ecosystem supports more than 3 million jobs across Europe, 2 million directly employed and around 1.4 million in other sectors.
\n\u2022 Europe is the leading player in the GSMA Open Gateway, with committed operators representing more than 20% of signatories despite accounting for only 10% of global mobile connections. Participating operators include BT, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, Telef\u00f3nica, Telenor, Vodafone and more.
\n\u2022 Of the \u20ac164 billion 5G will add to the European economy in 2030, 34% is expected to originate from the manufacturing sector, followed by the public administration (19%) and services (12%) sectors.
\n\u2022 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) has emerged as an important use case in the consumer and enterprise segments, complementing operators enhanced mobile broadband offerings. To date, operators in 24 European countries have launched 5G FWA services.
\n\u2022 There will be 545 million licensed cellular IoT connections in Europe by 2030, of which Germany will account for a quarter. France, Italy, Sweden and the UK will each account for around 10%.<\/p>\n

Above, photo by mentatdgt on pexels<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The GSMA\u2019s Mobile Economy Europe report reveals 5G adoption in Europe will soar to 80% by 2030, boosting the economy by \u20ac164 billion \u2013 but policy reforms are key to securing critical network investment 5G accounted for 30% of mobile connections in Europe at the end of 2024 \u2013 equivalent to 200 million connections \u2013 … <\/p>\n

Continue reading \u00abDigital infrastructure investments are key to boosting Europe\u2019s global competitiveness, according to new GSMA report\u00bb<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20968"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20968"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20968\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20970,"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20968\/revisions\/20970"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/telecomkh.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}