Europe’s ambition to regain technological leadership will not be realised without leadership in connectivity, especially at a time when our traditional partners are looking inwards and threatening to raise barriers to trade.
Now more than ever, European telecommunications technology providers need an expectation of European demand for 6G, European digital services developers need an expectation of fast and secure European mobile networks to bring their innovations to as many European users as possible, and Europe’s diverse productive sectors need a vibrant European ecosystem of ICT mobile networks and services to facilitate innovation in their different fields.
An open letter for Europe’s mobile future
The CTOs of Europe’s leading telecoms operators, including Telefónica, have sent an open letter to the EU and national authorities, as a follow up to the CEOs letter from October 2024. In the letter, the CTOs highlight the impact that decisions and the strategic approach that Europe will take now on the upper 6 GHz band will have in securing digital connectivity to enable Europe’s future economic competitiveness and sovereignty.
They also state that European Telecom operators remain committed to developing and investing for the future, delivering the connectivity that supports Europe’s mobile users, economic objectives, productivity and jobs. However, CTOs also point out that the necessary spectrum resources need to be made available, highlighting the benefits to our competitiveness as a region of making available to mobile operators the only mid-band spectrum available and suitable for 6G deployment, rather than setting it aside to expand the capacity of WiFi networks.
European leadership in 6G
The upper 6 GHz band is expected to play a significant role in supporting the deployment of next generation 6G services in Europe: without it Europe would not have a spectrum band on which to launch the new technology.
Several spectrum bands intended for 6G are in the agenda for WRC-27, but those frequencies are being used for critical military services in Europe and only a very small fraction could realistically be made available for mobile.
Existing mobile bands refarming to 6G will not be a viable option, because by the time 6G becomes commercially available, they will be needed to sustain 5G services and would not be available to launch 6G.
With technology in the 6 GHz band designed to operate with 200 MHz carriers, making available less than 600 MHz for mobile in a three-operator market would hinder the capacity of operators to run and deploy their networks efficiently and limit the potential benefits of future 6G services to the end users. As the CTOs state in their letter, “without the full availability of the upper 6 GHz for mobile networks, any future 6G services in this band would be significantly curtailed and ultimately jeopardise Europe’s opportunity to play a leading role in 6G deployment. It would also fragment the global ecosystem for 6G, leaving Europe unable to benefit from economies of scale.”.
RSPG Long-term vision for the upper 6 GHz band
The Radio Spectrum Policy Group (RSPG), the spectrum advisory group to the European Commission, is expected to publish in June 2025 its draft Opinion on the upper 6 GHz band for Public Consultation, followed by a final Opinion in November 2025. That opinion should not create further uncertainties about the future availability of spectrum for mobile.
The RSPG 6G Strategic Vision Report has already acknowledged the challenges of finding new spectrum suitable for mobile in Europe in the short and mid-term, noting that “Europe already opposed at WRC-23 to study frequency bands listed in WRC-27 AI 1.7 except 7125-7250 MHz. This position and European strategic usages that remain valid will impact any future positions to be developed for WRC-27.”
Further to this, the RSPG report also highlights the importance of developing a 6G spectrum roadmap: “To create a common market for network and terminal equipment, the EU needs to indicate in which spectrum band(s) the first launches of 6G are planned. Therefore, the RSPG intends to develop a 6G spectrum roadmap during its next working period (2026-2027) in order to identify which frequency band(s) should be made available for the launch of 6G.”
Taking on board the remarks from RSPG on the challenges to find new spectrum for 6G beyond the upper 6 GHz band, and the indication from telco CTOs that only the full availability of the band will secure Europe’s future digital connectivity, the conclusion is clear: RSPG should recommend making available the full upper 6 GHz band for full-power macro-cell mobile deployments.
Wi-Fi performance is guaranteed
Telecom operators will not only be the main actor deploying European 6G networks. We are also the primary providers of Wi-Fi services to European consumers and enterprises, and in our view the spectrum already allocated is sufficient to meet the expected demand for WiFi even in very optimistic scenarios.
Our analysis clearly results in Wi-Fi throughputs above 1 Gbps in residential environments using the existing unlicensed spectrum assigned in the 2.4, 5 and lower 6 GHz bands. But even if higher throughputs would be demanded in certain homes or businesses, installing more access points with FTTR (Fibre to the room) technologies, and adding higher frequency bands, would provide a leapfrog upgrade to the Wi-Fi capacity and performance.
The EU made available four years ago a large block of 480 MHz for WIFi in the lower part of the band, that remains widely unused. Adding more spectrum in the upper part would give WiFi technology free access to more spectrum in Europe, but at the large opportunity cost of preventing European firms from taking a leading role in the development and use of 6G.
