The Netherlands and Belgium do not seem to be achieving European 5G targets
It seems that the Netherlands and Belgium will not meet the European targets for the provision of 5G by 2025. The European Court of Auditors shared this in their report on 5G in Europe. The Netherlands is not doing well, but Belgium is doing even worse.
5G Frequencies
Almost everyone now has a 5G phone, but they can’t enjoy the faster network yet. The chance is therefore small that there will be 5G everywhere in three years. This was stated by the European Court of Auditors in their report.
To use the speed gain of 5G, other frequency bands are needed. This concerns these three important bands: the 700MHz band, the 3.5GHz band and the 26GHz band. These tires are auctioned and only then can the faster internet be used.
The Netherlands is lagging behind in allocating those frequency bands. At the moment, the Netherlands has only auctioned the 700MHz band. The 3.5GHz band has not yet been auctioned. This is because the band is already in use by a company that cannot stop using it in the short term. The frequencies on this band are especially important for the provision of the 5G network. There is no plan yet for the 26GHz band. At the moment, only permission has been given in Belgium for the use of the 5G frequencies.
Security of 5G
The Court of Audit notes that the Netherlands has not yet transposed the electronic communications directive into national policy. Nevertheless, the national policy is in line with the European objectives for 2025. This is not the case in Belgium. Finland is currently the only European Member State where all tires have been auctioned and everything is in order. Germany and Greece have also auctioned off all frequency bands, but their policies aren’t quite right either.
The Netherlands is ahead of Belgium when it comes to rules to ensure the security of 5G. In the Netherlands, network suppliers from certain countries are not allowed to supply equipment for the core network. In this article you can read which countries and why. There are no rules for this in Belgium yet.
Are you going to use the ‘real’ 5G as soon as it is possible? Let us know why or why not in the comments below this article.
