The EU announced a 5G partnership with China during trade talks in Beijing, following previous agreements with Japan and South Korea.

According to commissioner Guenther Oettinger, who signed the declaration along with Miao Wei, Chinese minister of industry and information technology, “5G will be the backbone of our digital economies and societies worldwide. The EU has teamed up with the most important Asian partners in a global race to make 5G a reality by 2020.”

In a blog post, he wrote that “we may not agree on everything with China and there will still be a lot of discussion, but we have now all the cards in our hand to make 5G a success.”

The agreement was announced during the EU-China High Level Economic and Trade Dialogue in China’s capital.

As part of the most recent agreement, the two parties want to “reach a global understanding on the concept, basic functionalities, key technologies and time plan for 5G” by the end of this year and promote its global standardisation.

They also want to explore possibilities of joint research, including looking at the applications for 5G such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and identify “the most promising” radio frequency bands to meet the technology’s requirements.

“5G won’t just be faster, it will also be the backbone of our digital future and the foundation of a trillion euro EU market in IoT, i.e. new functionalities and applications ranging from connected cars to smart homes,” the EC said in a statement.

The statement added that the agreement is significant because China is likely to be a major player in the development of 5G and also potentially the world’s largest market for 5G technologies, products and services.

It also said it is “timely” as the “5G standardisation race will start already in 2016 together with discussions on spectrum requirements for 5G that should culminate during the World Radio Conference 2019.”

Under the agreement the EU telecoms and ICT industry are likely to have easier access to the Chinese market, the statement said.

Investment
In December 2013, the EC launched a Public-Private Partnership on 5G (5G PPP) in which the EU plans to invest €700 million by 2020 through the Horizon 2020 programme.

The EU industry is set to match this investment by up to five times, to more than €3 billion, the Commission said.

The EU’s 5G PPP Association and China’s IMT-2020 (5G) Promotion Association are ready to sign an industrial agreement as soon as the EU-China joint agreement on 5G is in place.

The research phase of 5G-PPP is due to complete next year, before companies are due to move onto system optimisation. Large scale trials are then planned for 2019, with a target launch for 5G in 2020.

The latest EU-backed research project designed to develop standards for the next-generation of mobile technology is called ‘FANTASTIC 5G’, which was joined by 16 leading providers in July.

Earlier this month, Nokia promised “a big bang” with a proposal for the “first commercial full spec 5G rollout” at the European football championship in 2020.