European Union Research Grants Will be Available to Develop 5G Technology

EUROPA is the official European Union (EU) website. It provides access to information published by all EU institutions, agencies and bodies. Today, they are announcing that 50 million Euros or the equivalent of $65.4 million USD will be available for research. The research is aimed at developing and delivering 5G mobile technology by the year 2020.

Neelie Kroes, vice president of the European Commission said, "I want 5G to be pioneered by European industry, based on European research and creating jobs in Europe – and we will put our money where our mouth is." The feeling is that every sector of the economy is going digital. Every EU business and citizen needs to know they can enjoy easy-to-use, reliable and fast Internet on the move. This new wave of research projects promises to bring cutting-edge ultra-high-speed mobile broadband technology to the daily lives of Europeans.

In a speech, Kroes said, “Europe used to lead the world in wireless. We invented the GSM standard, we once dominated devices, yet now we are falling behind, overtaken to the East and the West. We urgently need to catch up. We need to reclaim a strong wireless industry to cement a strong economy and to give people the technological tools to access and create opportunity.”

In the six year period between 2007 and 2013, EU investments have amounted to more than 700 million Euros, or slightly more than $915 million USD for research on future networks. Half of that amount went toward the development of 4G technologies.

The estimation is that there are currently 1.2 billion broadband users, with that figure growing by the hundreds of millions each year. The EU is expecting that by 2020 global mobile traffic will increase by at least 33 times in a 10 year period. They see wireless devices, such as, smartphones and tablets controlling Internet access. This would require more efficient and universal technology to carry the data traffic.

According to EUROPA, every sector of the economy is going digital. Every EU business and citizen needs to know that they can enjoy easy to use, reliable and fast Internet on the move. This new wave of research projects promises to bring cutting edge ultra-high speed mobile broadband technology to the daily lives of Europeans.

Toward this end, METIS, 5GNOW, iJOIN, TROPIC, Mobile Cloud Networking, COMBO, MOTO and PHYLAWS are some of the new EU research projects that address the architecture and functionality needs for 5G / beyond 4G networks. You can get individual information for each item mentioned here.