Twelve of Europe’s largest telecom operators, including Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom, Orange, and TIM, have called on regulators to allocate more spectrum for mobile services, warning that Europe risks lagging behind the U.S. in the race to deploy 6G technology.
In a letter addressed to European regulators, the operators urged that the entire upper 6GHz band be made available for mobile networks. The upper 6GHz band is one of the last significant blocks of mid-band spectrum available, which is crucial for supporting high-capacity networks capable of handling large data volumes while maintaining reasonable coverage.
While the United States opened the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi use in 2020 and China allocated it for 5G and 6G services in 2023, Europe has not yet decided on repurposing these frequencies for mobile use. The operators voiced concerns that delays in making the 6GHz band available for mobile networks would undermine Europe’s competitiveness, particularly as U.S. technology interests continue to secure further access to this spectrum.
The European Union’s Radio Spectrum Policy Group is expected to issue a draft opinion in June regarding the future use of the upper 6GHz band, which will be consulted by the European Commission.
In addition to the call for more spectrum, the telecom firms raised concerns that current spectrum resources would not be sufficient to support growing 5G services and the future deployment of 6G technology as mobile network traffic continues to rise.
Experts anticipate that 6G technology will be commercially launched in the 2030s, with research and development already underway.
