The workshop was attended by ca. 170 participants on site but also by a number of remote participants following the web streaming online. The recording of the workshop is still available. The attendance counted a broad range of stakeholders including regulators/national administrations, telecom operators and manufacturers, consultants as well as participants from satellite and broadcasting sectors, academia, research, press, defence and utilities.
Mr Roberto Viola, Deputy Director General of DG CONNECT opened the event. He underlined that spectrum is now high on the political agenda of the new Commission. Policy makers fully recognize the importance of spectrum as the life blood of the wireless society. He welcomed this early exchange between regulators and industry on 5G spectrum as it is crucial to reap the full social and economic benefit of this future infrastructure. He stressed that we need to have a consistent view in Europe, and globally, on which spectrum is the most relevant in order to orient the future frequency allocation process in the coming ITU World Radio communications and ensure that research activities for 5G are focussed on the most promising and most spectrum efficient wireless technologies.
The morning session was moderated by Mr Anthony Whelan, Director of Electronic Communications Networks & Services in DG CONNECT. The session started with presentations from Deutsche Telekom, DIGITALEUROPE, European Broadcasting Union, WIK-Consult, CEPT (European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications administrations) and Ofcom (the UK), who were speaking on anticipated spectrum requirements for 5G from the EU perspective. The international perspective was also addressed through valuable contributions from speakers from the US (FCC) and the Republic of Korea (ETRI) who presented their countries’ respective views on 5G spectrum planning. The subsequent panel discussion, including all the eight European and international speakers, revealed that the early identification of 5G spectrum by different regions is not always fully coinciding but there is a the fair degree of convergence on the main priorities. They all called for more collaboration, including on new ways to use and share spectrum. It is also to be noted that the EC flagship project METIS was often taken as a reference by speakers. It also appeared clearly from the interventions that any new spectrum allocations above 6GHz for the mobile services will have to be negotiated with already existing users of the respective bands, in particular the satellite users, in order to allow for sufficient time for proper solutions to be deployed on time.
The afternoon session, moderated by Mr Mário Campolargo, Director for Net Futures in DG CONNECT, started with a keynote speech on 5G perspectives by Professor Rahim Tafazolli of University of Surrey (also Director of the UK 5GIC). It was followed by the main session, a Round Table discussion on '5G spectrum needs and usage conditions – technical and regulatory aspects’. The panellists, complemented by Prof. Tafazolli at the discussion part, were representing Ofcom (the UK), PTS (Sweden), Nokia Networks, Samsung Electronics and Orange Group. Each panellist could start a round of discussions by making short statements to give their own perspective on selected ‘hot’ topics, including the need for contiguous blocks of spectrum, the timeliness of regulatory actions and the licensing and ownership of spectrum. During this session, it became clear that one of the concerns, in particular of regulators, is to ensure that 5G will also be available in rural areas from the start, and to avoid to create another "digital divide".
Mr Campolargo concluded that for the Commission, this event was only the starting point. He committed to continue the dialogue with all the concerned constituencies to help developing a true "vision for 5G". In this context, he informed participants that the Commission services plan to organise hearing type of event(s) next year. In addition, a large scale study on socio-economic aspects of 5G will be launched by the end of this year, including a spectrum forecast component. Finally, Mr Campolargo called the stakeholders to reach a consensus for the agenda item at WRC-15 setting the goals for WRC-19. It will be critical to reach an appropriate outcome at the WRC 19 conference so that 5G can be deployed commercially by the beginning of the next decade.
The Commission services are grateful to all participants in the workshop, not only the speakers and panellists, but also to all those who have contributed by their views and input.
All the presentations are available via hyperlinks in the agenda of the workshop.