Ookla Report shows Europe's 5G error, 5G evolution

The independent corporate analysis company Ookla has published a new report that concerns the Benchmarks progress (or the lack of the IT) in the direction of the 5G deployment objectives of the European Union (EU) of the European Union and emphasizes how inconsistent Europe is in relation to its regional approach for mobile communication.

The Ookla, based in the USA, is known for its speed test app and service, which tests the performance and quality of internet connections, and in the second quarter of 2025 figures used that were taken from the speed test intelligence data for production to produce 5G coverage in Europe: progress in the direction of goals in relation to differencesWhich ensures interesting and often sobering reading.

Europe is located in the middle of the 5G technology cycle, and the capital expenditure for the 5G network expansion has passed on its peak over most of the continent. On the legislative and regulatory side, the 5G spectrum auctions with a low and medium volume are now history. The numbers also show that the once apparently permanent, uninterrupted, out of control, growth of mobile data traffic is slowed down for the first time. In addition, European operators have followed a more cautious and conservative approach for the use of 5G technologies than in Asia and North America, especially when introducing new technology variants such as 5G standalone (SA). This, so that the European operators claim, is mainly due to the fact that they have directly related to the 5G subscribers to pay themselves in direct connection with the non -enthusiastic and limited increases of the income per user (ARPU). (If you have doubts, accuse the customer …)

Throughout the EU, the European Commission (EC) 5G has focused on its blockwide strategy of “competitiveness” and associated the aspects of the “availability of the cover, the timely spectrum task and the variety of providers with productivity gains and strategic autonomy”. The EU 5G guideline agenda is based on three important imperative: tightening of infrastructure provision on initiatives such as the Gigabit Infrastructure Act (GIA) and the Digital Networks Act (DNA); Subsidy of F&E “Frontier” by programs such as CEF Digital (Connecting Europe Facility) and SNS-JU (Smart Networking and Services Joint Engage); and “DE -Risking” vender supply chains via the security toolbox and the support of Open.

As the Ookla paper emphasizes, the net result of the 5G rollout in Europe is a “two-speed competitiveness landscape in which some countries are advancing while others fall back”. In the second quarter of this year, the Nordic Nations and South European countries in 5G availability had a significant lead, mainly thanks to 700 MHz bandwidth operations, which have powered two-digit cover gains in countries such as Sweden and Italy. The 5G availability in the delayed countries Central and Western Europe such as Belgium, Hungary and Great Britain, 5G is less than half of the counties in the European avant -garde.

The reality is that the use and introduction of 5G SA in Europe still remains sluggish, only slowly increases from a very low initial basis and the gap in the region against North America and Asia is expanded further. At the end of June Spain in Europe was a clear leader in 5G -SA use, with an 8% Iocla sample proportion compared to the EU average of only 1.3%. The report relies on Spanish success on the proactive use of EU recovery funds by the country to subsidize 5G SA rollouts in sub-Supply, whereby the focus is on the bridging of the digital gap between rural and urban focus. This is the highlight, but it is very low compared to progress in the USA and China, where the 5G sample from Ookla in the USA indicates shares of over 20%, and 80% in China and proof of the much greater pace of cover and acceptance in these countries.

The lack of a comprehensive EU 5G policy has led to a fragmented and damaged sector

The lack of a coherent 5G expansion policy for Europe as a whole. The broken mixture of individual country policy is reflected, which are based on very different attitudes towards spectrum assignment regimes and national economic and political factors, including costs, subsidies, the exchange of infrastructure as well as service and coverage obligations instead of intra-national geographies and cross-border cooperation. As the Ookla report expresses, “this indicates that the 5G competitivity is less shaped by technological gaps or inherent market disorders and more by effective political execution.”

Overall, Northern Europe leads in the 5G availability of availability, but the countries of Benelux and Eastern Europe were spotted far below as well as Rans. In the second quarter of 2025, Denmark had a 5G coverage rate of 83.9%, while Sweden 77.8% and Greece had an availability rate of 76.4% 5G. The Ookla team noticed that Northern and southern European nations are “disproportionately represented” among the countries with the highest availability of 5G and have the cover rates up to twice as high as in western and eastern nations such as Great Britain (45.2%), Hungary (29.9%) and Belgium (11.9%).

Denmark, Sweden and Norway, two Scandinavian countries with some of the lowest population density and the highest challenging terrain across Europe, together with Denmark, whose geography are much more harmless than its northern neighbors, are particularly insofar as they are introduced strict 5G license goals and obligations for rural or regional reports on 5G have. In the Swedish 700 -MHz band auction, for example, Telia was legally obliged to invest EUR 25 million from its license fee in order to provide at least 10 Mbit/s mobile broadband coverage into prioritized rural areas that were shown as an unex appropriate service. The operator strives for 99% of the nationwide access by the population until the end of this year.

The Nordic countries have also actively promoted extensive network release, such as the TT network joint venture between Telia and Telenor in Denmark and the Net4Mobility cooperation between Tele2 and Telenor in Sweden and have loans from the European Investment Bank (EIB) or Nordic Investation Bank (NIB) to the European Investment Bank (EIB) or Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) Finance to finance the European investment banks (Nordic Investment Bank). Only for dynamic spectrum release (DSS).

Elsewhere, Switzerland easily leads other countries such as Luxembourg and Belgium in 5G availability and, by the end of June this year, reached 81.3% penetration and this without dependence on state subsidies, but by storing spectrum license fees, “affordable”, although the capital provides the network operators, is supported by its exceptionally high Arpu arms.

All in all, the state of 5G is pretty much a curate in Europe, well in part, but decidedly in others, where “politics acts as a barrier, not as a catalyst for 5G use”. Although regulatory politics in some northern and southern European countries have promoted 5G investments, “they suppressed them in others.” For example, British trade for telecommunications security forced the operators to tear and replace (Chinese) devices as a potential threat to national security. The relatively poor position of Great Britain in the 5G availability ranking was increased by a lack of strict insurance obligations and financing gaps according to the Brexit, since the United Kingdom was prevented from accessing the funds of EU recreation and resilience (RRF), which, for example, caused the Italian operators in their 5G networks.

Great Britain is now making considerable progress in 5G SA use, and the country's wireless infrastructure strategy is more of an “ambition” and not a prescribing intention to be available in “all populated areas” 5G SA by 2030. It is one of the most determined goals, not only in Europe, but also in the other side of the rest. Improvements are on the train, but the train is late.

– – Martyn Warwick, editor -in -chief, TelecomTV