Europe's 5G lag risks decade-long tech gap, report warns

Europe falls behind in 5G transition

Europe is losing ground to North America and Asia as mobile carriers struggle to transition to 5G Standalone (SA) networks. A new report from Ookla and Omdia reveals that while Tier-1 operators in the US and India have completed their upgrades, European markets remain stuck on older infrastructure. This delay creates a structural technology gap that could disadvantage European businesses and consumers for the next decade.

The report, titled "A Global Reality Check on 5G SA and 5G Advanced," suggests the industry is now at the halfway point of the 5G lifecycle. Most early 5G deployments relied on Non-Standalone (NSA) technology, which bolted 5G radios onto existing 4G LTE cores. While this allowed for faster initial coverage, it failed to deliver the low latency and high capacity promised by the 5G standard.

North American carriers and Indian operators like Reliance Jio skipped the intermediate steps or moved quickly to full 5G SA. These regions now have the foundation required to launch 5G Advanced, a suite of new features that improve how devices communicate with cell towers. Operators that delayed their SA deployments now face a compounding disadvantage because they cannot support these next-generation capabilities.

The foundation of 5G Advanced

5G Standalone is the necessary prerequisite for 5G Advanced, which introduces technical improvements to network efficiency and reliability. One of the most significant upgrades is Sub-band Full Duplex (SBFD), a technology that allows a device to send and receive data simultaneously on the same frequency. This eliminates the wait times inherent in traditional Time Division Duplex (TDD) systems, where devices must switch between uploading and downloading.

These improvements target specific bottlenecks in mobile communication that affect high-bandwidth tasks. 5G Advanced also enables network slicing, allowing operators to dedicate specific portions of their spectrum to different types of traffic. A carrier could, for example, create a "slice" with guaranteed low latency for emergency services or autonomous vehicles while maintaining a separate slice for general web browsing.

The Ookla report highlights several key technical benefits of 5G SA and 5G Advanced:

• Lower Latency: Removing the 4G core reduces the time it takes for data to travel between the device and the network.
• Higher Upload Speeds: 5G SA allows for better utilization of uplink frequencies, which is critical for video conferencing and cloud backups.
• Massive IoT: The 5G SA core can manage significantly more connected devices per square kilometer than 4G-based cores.
• Edge Computing: SA networks allow data processing to happen closer to the user, improving performance for augmented reality and gaming.

Regional leaders and laggards

The divide between global regions is becoming more pronounced as 5G SA matures. In North America, major carriers have largely finished the migration to a 5G core, providing a consistent experience across the continent. India has seen one of the fastest rollouts in history, with operators moving directly to 5G SA to avoid the limitations of legacy 4G hardware.

Europe's 5G SA coverage did see growth, more than doubling between Q4 2024 and Q4 2025. This growth was primarily driven by aggressive deployment schedules in Austria, Spain, and the UK. Despite this progress, the region still trails its global peers by a significant margin, leaving many users on "fake" 5G networks that offer little improvement over 4G LTE.

The United Kingdom faces particularly steep challenges in its network performance. Previous data suggests the UK's 5G networks are among the least reliable in Europe. Several factors contributed to this decline:

• Huawei kit removal: The UK government mandated that operators rip and replace equipment from Huawei, diverting billions in capital from upgrades to maintenance.
• Spectrum delays: Operators struggled to acquire the necessary frequency bands at the right time to build out high-capacity networks.
• Investment fatigue: High costs and low returns on initial 5G investments made some carriers hesitant to fund the expensive move to a 5G core.

Policy drives network performance

Government strategy is the single biggest predictor of 5G SA success, according to the Omdia analysis. Countries that treated 5G as a strategic priority rather than a background upgrade have seen better adoption rates. This includes implementing clear coverage obligations and providing financial incentives for infrastructure investment.

Brazil serves as a primary example of effective policy, where the government linked spectrum licenses to specific 5G SA coverage requirements. Japan and Spain have also seen success by offering investment incentives that lower the financial burden on carriers. These proactive approaches contrast with the reactive or fragmented policies seen in other European nations.

In the UK, regulators recently cleared the merger between Three and Vodafone, citing infrastructure consolidation as a potential benefit. The theory is that a larger, combined entity will have more capital to invest in a 5G SA core. However, many industry observers remain skeptical about whether this consolidation will result in better service for consumers or simply lead to higher prices.

Battery life and the path to 6G

One surprising finding in the report contradicts long-standing fears about 5G power consumption. Early critics worried that the extra signaling required for 5G would drain mobile batteries faster than 4G. The Ookla data suggests the opposite may be true for 5G SA networks, which appear to extend device battery life.

Because 5G SA removes the need for a device to maintain a constant connection to a 4G "anchor" tower, the radio hardware can operate more efficiently. The simplified signaling between the device and the 5G core reduces the power required to stay connected. This efficiency is a major selling point for Internet of Things (IoT) devices that need to remain in the field for years on a single charge.

The next two years will be the critical window for operators to finalize their 5G SA strategies. Those that fail to build a mature SA foundation now will struggle to transition to 6G in the 2030s. The report warns that the gap between leaders and laggards will only widen as 5G Advanced becomes the new global standard for mobile connectivity.

Key takeaways for the future of mobile networks:

• Strategic Priority: 5G SA must be treated as a core infrastructure goal, not a background task.
• Spectrum Allocation: Governments must ensure spectrum is available and affordable for SA deployment.
• Industrial Use: The real benefits of 5G SA and Advanced are found in industrial automation and low-latency services, not just faster phone downloads.
• 6G Readiness: A fully functional 5G SA core is the only viable path toward the eventual rollout of 6G technology.