With the new 5G agreement, the EU will join forces with Japan to cope with the increasing need for wireless Internet and complement current efforts to create a Digital Single Market in Europe.
The agreement will allow EU and Japan to work towards a common understanding and standards of 5G, identify new harmonised radio band frequencies for 5G spectrum and cooperate on future 5G applications. In parallel, the EU and Japan have also agreed to deepen their cooperation on Research and Innovation (R&I).
The foundation for the EU and Japan cooperation on 5G mobile technology has been laid down in the Memorandum of Understandingon 25 March 2015. The commitment was signed between the 5G Public-Private Partnership, which was launched by the Commission in December 2013, and Japan’s Fifth Generation Mobile Communications Promotion Forum (5GMF). The EU is already investing €700 million by 2020 in this Public-Private Partnership through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
Through its Digital Single Market Strategy (see IP/15/4919 and MEMO/15/4920) the Commission is committed to improving spectrum coordination in the EU, particularly in view of future 5G needs. The Commission will launch a review of the EU’s telecoms framework in the coming months, and present legislative proposals for an ambitious overhaul of EU telecoms rules in 2016. This includes more effective spectrum coordination, and common EU-wide criteria for spectrum assignment at national level.