How to approach 5G policies Fig. 13 | European 5G tests by frequency 5G PIONEER SPECTRUM Fig. 14 | European 5G tests by vertical 5G TRIALS | 5G CITIES Number of tests by vertical Source: The EU 5G Observatory by the European Commission, Directorate-General of Communications Networks, Content & Technology, using data from IDATE Digiworld, Note: data for March 2020 Also, the vast majority of commercially available 5G devices have so far been smartphones, devices for fixed wireless internet and industrial modules. The consumer ecosystems around 5G will flourish not only once coverage is built, but mainly after a sufficient number of 5G enabled consumer devices hits the market. This is more complex in 5G than for 4G, because 5G will require more diversity in types of devices. The 700 MHz band has already been allocated for 5G networks in seven European countries including Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Sweden. The 3.4-3.8GHz band has been allocated in nine countries, including Austria, the Czech Republic (partially), Finland, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Spain and the United Kingdom. The 26GHz band has so far been allocated only in Italy. Fig. 9 shows that the majority of the 5G spectrum in the European countries has not been allocated yet. Europe somewhat lags behind the US and the advanced Asian countries in spectrum allocation. Four EU countries, Austria, France, Spain and Portugal have postponed 5G spectrum auctions due to the covid 19 epidemic. The Czech Republic has also postponed its 5G auction, but for different reasons. Apart from the 3.7GHz spectrum allocation for localized industrial use in Germany and contemplation of similar moves in several other European countries (see chapter 5.2), the European 5G spectrum auctions have so far not shown many strong innovative or disruptive elements aimed at reforming the local digital infrastructure and service markets. Details about the status of the European 5G auctions can be found for example in: 5G Observatory Quarterly Report 7 Moreover, several countries including Italy and the Czech Republic have selected specific cities for early development of 5G-driven innovative ecosystems, bringing together telecom operators, technology companies, municipalities and the academic sphere. The aim is to find and test innovative use cases for 5G and to establish the best practice. One way to incentivize these early investments is to significantly decrease price for usage of 5G spectrum for such testing. The GSMA expects the mobile industry to invest US$1.14tn globally by 2025, with around US$0.9tn into 5G. It also expects that by 2025 there will be 1.8bn 5G connections in the world excluding IoT, approximately 20% of total connections by that time. “ The GSMA expects 1.8bn 5G connections ex-IoT world-wide and over US$1tn wireless investments by 2025 ” About 5G 27