The European Commission has recently published its 5G Action Plan to boost EU efforts for the deployment of 5G infrastructures and services across the Union. 5G implies millions of connections between people, devices, and things across different vertical sectors who all stand to benefit from the efficiencies that ICT can bring to them. But how, in Europe, can we take this from concept to reality?

The 5G / Gigabit Society should be an inclusive eco-system that enhances the quality of life of all EU citizens, going beyond connectivity to enable efficiencies and enhanced quality to be felt in fields such as media, transport, environment, energy and health. Delivering the 5G experience is inherently linked with the availability of more-than-adequate broadband infrastructure, yet in Europe we still have around 7 million homes who lack Internet connectivity. In order to deliver 5G, governments need to prioritise investments in infrastructure while fostering a system-of-systems that delivers resilient and ubiquitous networks: the path to 5G is lit with promises but also littered with obstacles.