Monday 25 February 2019 4:28 pm | Updated: Monday 03 June 2019 12:13 am

Telecoms bosses warn of risks to 5G roll-out

Top executives from Europe's major telecoms firms have identified multiple obstacles that could impede the roll-out of 5G across the continent.

Speaking at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, BT consumer chief executive Marc Allera said that landlords across the UK were preventing the firm from constructing thousands of pieces of key infrastructure such as masts and small cells.

"The environment for us to [roll out 5G] is more difficult than we'd like," said Allera.

BT and its consumer network EE have launched 5G trials in six UK cities so far, with another 10 cities across 1,500 sites scheduled to go live before the end of 2019.

His comments echoed those made earlier in the day by Nokia chief executive Rajeev Suri and Ericsson chief executive Borje Ekholm, who both warned Europe could fall behind other regions if governments do not bring down high 5G spectrum auction fees.

"It’s a very heavily regulated sector, so overall the investment climate I think is the key reason why we have been slow," said Ekholm. "The reality is that less than half of the countries in Europe have actually given out spectrum for 5G. It’s a big uncertainty how much it’s going to cost."

Enrico Salvatori, European regional president of chipmaker Qualcomm, said there was "still a lot of work to be done" to complete the continent's spectrum availability.

While some spectrum auctions have been completed in countries such as the UK, Spain and Italy, others such as Germany and France are still locked in expensive bidding wars.

Qualcomm, which makes 5G chipsets that can be found in almost all major 5G smartphones launched to date, is banking on 5G becoming a global reality after today unveiling similar chips for the automotive and robotics industries.

The warnings follow further controversy for Chinese tech giant Huawei, which is under increasing scrutiny from regulators regarding possible cyber security flaws in its telecoms equipment.

Vodafone boss Nick Read told reporters in Barcelona that removal of Huawei's equipment from the 5G process could extend the roll-out in Europe by two years.

Huawei's involvement in Vodafone's own 5G trials was paused last month while the world's second largest mobile operator awaits further clarification on risks that the Chinese player may pose.

Global spending associated with 5G and related tech advancements is forecast to exceed $2.7 trillion (£2 trillion) by the end of 2020, according to data from Greensill.

This year's Mobile World Congress has been dominated by questions and products surrounding the roll-out of 5G, with several major companies launching 5G smartphones at the conference including Xiaomi, Huawei, Oneplus and LG.