The project supports the development of the French 5G mobile infrastructure enabling ultra-fast data transfer through this very high capacity network, and it is fully in line with the targets set out by the 5G for Europe Action Plan. Furthermore the project contributes directly to the EU broadband targets for 2025 presented in "Connectivity for a Competitive Digital Single Market - Towards a European Gigabit Society," which states that by 2025 all urban areas, as well as major roads and railways, should have uninterrupted 5G wireless broadband coverage, starting with fully-fledged commercial service in at least one major city in each EU member state already by 2020.
The roll out of commercial 5G networks started in mid-November 2020, in a Non-Standalone (NSA) mode. It is noteworthy that 5G licenses come with coverage obligations outlined below, which stimulate the operators 5G network rollouts:
France targets 2020 5G rollout
In countries where the rollout of full-fibre was slow in the past, a significant increase in pace can be seen to make networks future-proof. In Belgium, Germany and the UK, homes passed by fibre networks, grew by more than 60% in the year to September 2020. Proximus plans to pass 2.4 million homes by 2026 and 4.2 million by 2028. This requires a significant increase in the speed of deployment resulting in the yearly addition of almost 0.5 million homes, which coincidentally is the current number of homes passed in total. In Germany, Deutsche Telekom plans to have a fibre network of 10 million homes passed in 2024, eventually passing 2.5 million premises a year. Openreach (BT) wants to connect 4 million homes per year, rolling out FTTH to 25 million premises in 2026, up from 4.5 million today.
In Italy, the rollout pace has also been picking up, with 2.8 million homes added by September 2020. Prime Minister Mario Draghi has put digitisation at the heart of his agenda, aiming for superfast connections of 1 gigabyte available to all Italians by 2026. OpenFiber, which is partly state owned, aims to reach 19 million homes eventually. FiberCop (TIM) sets out to deploy to 13.6 million homes by 2026. The creation of a state-sponsored entity, merging the two networks, seems on hold, which will possibly slow down the pace of the rollout.
European data centre owners and operators have made commitments to achieve climate neutrality by 2030, setting ambitious targets for energy efficiency, use of clean energy, water conservation and the circular economy. Various industry initiatives, such as the Climate Neutral Data Centre Pact in 2020, also set bold objectives for their members to become climate neutral by 2030.
5G in the C-band was set to launch December 5, 2021, following extensive testing, preparation, and experience of wireless service rollout by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Transmission rules for the C-band were published in March 2020. At the 11th hour, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a cryptic safety alert, saying that while there is no evidence that 5G harms the operation of altimeters, that pilots should pay attention to their gauges. Ostensibly, the FAA is concerned about interference to outdated altimeters on old planes and helicopters but lacking technical or regulatory standards for altimeters, it appears the FAA has only limited idea of where these obsolete altimeters are and how many are there. Despite its acknowledged lack of information, the FAA boasts that US airspace is the most complex in the world and its safety; the best. With more than 40 nations having rolled out 5G on some 200 networks without problems to aviation, the situation with the FAA has become a national embarrassment. 2ff7e9595c
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