EU and Brazil to work together on 5G mobile technology

This afternoon, Commissioner Oettinger, in charge of the Digital Economy and Society, and Brazilian Minister of Communications André Figueiredo, will sign an agreement to work together on the development of 5G mobile technology. In the future, everybody and everything will use 5G. By 2020, there will be 26 billion connected devices and 70 percent of people will own a smartphone. 5G will be the backbone of the EU Digital Single Market, industries of the future, modern public services and innovative applications such as connected cars, smart homes or mobile health services. To face this global challenge, the EU wants to join forces with Brazil to strengthen cooperation in this strategic area and to make sure that 5G does not develop in silos at the international level. The signing ceremony takes place at 13.00 at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (press release to be available in English, Portuguese, Spanish, German and French). Both Vice-President Ansip, responsible for the Digital Single Market, and Commissioner Oettinger are at the Mobile World Congress to highlight EU digital priorities. Yesterday, Vice-President Ansip gave a keynote speech on “Mobile as the foundation for digital identity”. He said: “We have already started to prepare the ground for future technology advances, with our proposal to allocate new spectrum within the 700 MHz band for wireless broadband services. It will allow 4G mobile services to be rolled out more cost-efficiently while we work together on 5G to become a widespread reality in Europe“.  Commissioner Oettinger has delivered several speeches on 5G. He said: “Our 5G action plan for Europe needs eventually to cover all sectors if we are to secure our leadership in 5G technologies, deploy new networks in time and most importantly contribute to the digitalisation of European industry and society“.