Small Cell Forum: Europe Risks Falling Behind in Smart Cities and Industrial IoT

SCF welcomes call for more urgency on dense networks to ensure IoT-ready 5G for Europe

Small Cell Forum, the telecoms organization driving network densification worldwide, has welcomed a report urging more urgency and innovation in the development of Europe’s communications infrastructure.

According to a new report from Rethink Technology Research, fragmented regulation and the need for greater urgency from larger MNOs mean Europe is currently falling well behind North America and the larger Asian economies in the densification of mobile networks. The result, the report argues, means European networks will be ill-prepared for some of the key 5G-enabled use cases, such as industrial IoT and smart cities. That, in turn, risks making the EU less able to compete on the world stage.

Based on a survey of the deployment plans of European operators, as the region evolves from 4G to 5G, the report’s findings are supported by a number of distinguished analysts.

Caroline Gabriel, Rethink’s Research Director, says: "One reason Europe is falling behind is that regulations and processes surrounding sites, power levels and equipment approvals have for some time been too rigid, lengthy and fragmented to encourage mass-scale roll-out.

"This report is saying that Europe doesn’t need to lose out economically or in terms of service provision. If regulators are willing to create a flexible, open framework for small cell deployments, other players will be able to harness densification to fill the gap left by the large operators. In that way, Europe could catch up quickly in 5G use cases which require dense networks – even if the main providers monetizing the new services are not the traditional MNOs."


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Small Cell Forum europe smart cities Industrial IoT

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