Europe Risks Falling Behind US in 6G Deployment Due to Spectrum Allocation Issues

European Telecoms Urge Spectrum Allocation for 6G

• ⚠️ Twelve major European telecoms firms, including Vodafone and Deutsche Telekom, have warned that Europe is at risk of falling behind the US in the deployment of future 6G technology.
• 📢 In a letter to regulators, these companies urged for the allocation of more spectrum for mobile services, specifically demanding the entire upper 6 GHz band be made available for mobile networks.

Spectrum Allocation and Global Comparison

• 🔑 The upper 6 GHz band is identified as one of the few remaining large blocks of mid-band spectrum suitable for data-intensive networks with reasonable coverage.
• 🇺🇸 The US allocated this band for Wi-Fi use in 2020, while China allocated it for 5G and 6G services in 2023.
• 🇪🇺 In contrast, Europe has not yet made a decision on repurposing these frequencies, with the EU's radio spectrum policy group expected to issue a draft opinion in June.

Future Deployment Challenges

• 📈 Operators highlighted that current spectrum allocations will be insufficient to support both existing 5G services and the anticipated rise in mobile network traffic for future 6G deployment.
• 🚀 Experts anticipate that 6G technology is expected to be commercially launched in the 2030s.