The European Commission (EC) announced an agreement with Brazil to develop 5G technology, building on similar partnerships with South Korea, China and Japan.

In a signing held at Mobile World Congress, the parties committed to a joint collaboration to “strengthen cooperation in this strategic area and to make sure that 5G does not develop in silos at the international level”.

Specifically, the EC and Brazil will work on the development of a global definition for 5G standards and identify which services, whether it is connected cars, IoT, or high-speed video streaming for example, should be brought to the network first.

The partnership will also see a drive to define common standards globally and identify frequencies to meet additional requirements for 5G.

“(This partnership) is about essential technology to ensure connectivity,” said Andrus Ansip, VP for the Digital Single Market at the European Commission, in a statement. “But it is also building trust and confidence in online services and creating the right conditions for the technology to be deployed across borders.”

Earlier this week, Ansip delivered a speech trumpeting a coordinated spectrum effort globally, as part of the commission’s single market vision, and said its recent proposal to allocate new spectrum within 700MHz would advance both 4G and future 5G services.

“This move will allow 4G services to be more cost efficient, while we wait a few more years for 5G to become a widespread reality in Europe and beyond,” he said.

The EC, which also confirmed the launch of an action plan intended to deploy 5G in the continent by 2020, could yet add further country partners, confirming talks with India and the US are ongoing.