The European Commission has positioned 5G standalone (SA) at the center of its emerging pro-growth industrial strategy to boost competitiveness. Yet, despite setting the most ambitious 5G infrastructure targets of any advanced liberal economy, Europe trails the US and Asia in deployment progress.

The global rollout of 5G standalone (SA) networks is gaining momentum after a slower-than-expected start, driven in part by its technical complexity and significant capital requirements in a challenging business environment. Operators continue to advance cautiously, seeking monetization strategies to capture new revenues in both consumer and enterprise segments.

For governments, being at the frontier of the next phase of the 5G cycle is a key differentiator, with the low-latency and high-reliability capabilities of 5G SA pitched as critical to enabling new industrial applications, strengthening digital competitiveness, and attracting inward investment. Mobile networks are now a core pillar of strategic national infrastructure.

The European Commission’s commitment to high-performing mobile network infrastructure has been a hallmark of its Digital Decade program in recent years, further strengthened by the recent launch of the “Competitiveness Compass”—a key strategic framework based on the recommendations of Mario Draghi’s high-profile report. This initiative aims to enhance Europe’s competitiveness in critical industries through a new pro-growth industrial strategy, prioritizing 5G SA investments as a central driver of the program.

However, despite setting the most ambitious 5G infrastructure targets of any advanced liberal economy, Europe currently features the poorest outcomes in terms of 5G SA performance and availability among major global regions. Across Europe, significant disparities in 5G SA rollout progress among countries have undermined the bloc’s competitiveness in the technology, widening the gap with leaders like the US and China.

For the first time, Ookla, in collaboration with Omdia, has published comprehensive research on the global reach and performance of 5G SA networks. The report focuses on Europe’s competitiveness in the technology, progress in monetizing the 5G core for consumer and enterprise use cases, and successful government policies, forming part of a flagship global report on 5G SA commercialization progress.

Key Takeaways

Europe Severely Lags Other Major Regions in 5G SA Rollout and Performance

In Q4 2024, China (80%), India (52%), and the United States (24%) led the world in 5G SA availability based on Speedtest® sample share, markedly ahead of Europe (2%). The region also lagged behind its peers on other key metrics, with the median European consumer experiencing 5G SA download speeds of 221.17 Mbps—lower than those in the Americas (384.42 Mbps) and both Developed (237.04 Mbps) and Emerging (259.73 Mbps) Asia Pacific. The interplay of earlier deployments, a more diversified multi-band spectrum strategy, and greater operator willingness to invest in the 5G core to monetize new use cases have driven rollouts at a faster pace in regions outside Europe.

Europe Exhibits Significant Disparities in 5G SA Deployment Among Member States

Within Europe, while 5G SA rollout progress remains highly varied, the best outcomes have been observed in countries that have specific policies intended to incentivize 5G SA deployment. Germany, the United Kingdom, and Spain—all four-player markets benefiting from targeted 5G SA-specific fiscal stimuli or coverage obligations— lead Europe in terms of 5G SA rollout across multiple operators. Meanwhile, Southern and Central European countries have supplanted the Nordics at the forefront of this phase of the 5G cycle, with Greece (547.52 Mbps) leading on median download speed in Q4 2024 thanks to its 3.5 GHz usage, and Spain and Austria excelling in rural 5G SA coverage on the back of intensive deployment of the 700 MHz band.

For Europe, the Performance Improvements Unlocked by 5G SA Demonstrate the Strategic Importance of the Technology in Driving Digital Competitiveness

Globally, 5G SA networks are delivering significantly improved performance across key metrics compared to the non-standalone architecture. In Q4 2024, median latency—a key beneficiary of transitioning to the 5G core—was nearly 20% lower on 5G SA networks compared to 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) networks in Europe and China, and more than 25% lower in the United States and Japan. Similarly, median download speeds on 5G SA were more than 57% higher in Europe and 84% higher in China than those on non-standalone networks.

Notwithstanding these improvements, 5G SA’s full potential remains largely untapped in Europe. Advanced uplink capabilities unlocked by the technology—such as higher-order MIMO and carrier aggregation—remain limited to a few operators in leading markets like the United States, highlighting the still nascent profile of the device and equipment ecosystems for 5G SA.

To Capture the Full Monetization Potential of the Technology, European Operators Need to Adapt Their Business Models and Cater to New Verticals

While 5G investments in Europe have yet to yield significant monetization, operators in other regions are leveraging the enhanced performance and flexibility of the new 5G core to drive tariff and service innovation. They are focusing on consumer segmentation with performance-oriented tariff upsells and developing tailored network slices to deliver new services across diverse enterprise verticals.

European operators at the forefront of business model evolution with 5G SA—such as BT’s EE in the UK, Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Elisa in Finland, and 3 in Austria—are leveraging the technology to consolidate their positions at the premium end of the market and stimulate average revenue per user (ARPU) growth.

Download the Full Report

For an in-depth, first-of-its-kind analysis of Europe’s competitiveness in 5G SA—covering global deployment and monetization trends, Speedtest Intelligence® network performance data, Omdia’s adoption and core spending forecasts, and key policy recommendations to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness—download our full white paper, A Global Evaluation of Europe’s Competitiveness in 5G SA.