Commissioner Oettinger recently said “Europe cannot afford to lag behind in the digital era” and called upon European industry to work together on a common strategy to build & deploy 5G connectivity infrastructure. 5G increased performance will serve vertical industries, it will facilitate the IoT ecosystems and the 4th industrial revolution with all the security and the cost efficiency they need.

While this is a great opportunity for Europe which is already home to some of the world’s leading operators and vendors, it is still a challenge given that other regions of the world are already aggressively pursuing their defined strategies. 5G is more than a telecom standard, therefore Europe needs not only a roadmap to implement a vision that encompasses the whole value chain driven by new service opportunities across vertical sectors to deliver a truly inter-connected digital future, but most importantly, the EU needs a holistic approach on how to embed digital to industries. The EU needs concrete steps that would enable European industries not only to go digital but also to go global.

This EIF breakfast debate will bring together industry and policy-makers to identify the policy and regulatory requirements needed to overcome fragmentation, foster inter-sector collaboration and make the vision for Europe a reality in a realistic timeframe so that Europe does not lag behind other regions of the world.