Europe faces technological gap in telecom despite low prices

A report by BEREC, the European body for telecom regulators, indicates that while the European Union offers some of the most affordable broadband services among developed economies, a technological gap remains compared to global leaders like the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea.

In the EU, fixed and mobile internet prices are among the lowest in the compared group, similar to Japanese levels and significantly lower than in the US or South Korea. However, Europe lags in average download speeds. While fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) reached 74.1% of EU households by mid-2025 and 5G coverage reached 96.8%, the technological depth differs. For instance, 5G Standalone infrastructure accounts for only 20.9% of mobile base stations in the EU, compared to 36.2% in the US and 34.8% in China.

The report highlights that investment in 5G within the EU remains lower than in China, South Korea, the US, and Japan, which is critical for supporting advanced technologies such as cloud services, edge computing, and industrial AI applications.