The current state of 5G in Europe looks a little bleaker if a new report is to be believed, with investments lower than the rest of the world and less than one-quarter of continental base stations operating in 5G standalone (SA) mode.

Stakeholder views from a recent event hosted by the EU-backed European 5G Observatory bemoaned a lack of investment in core networks, claiming the bloc was only putting 18% of that investment into the core, compared to 40% in China and 34% in the U.S., Korea, and Japan.

While that represents a 31% increase in investments from 2024, the consensus from industry stakeholders who attended the event was that focus on building out basic 5G coverage should now shift to further core investments.

Overall 5G investments stand at 50.6% for the EU, much higher than that in the core segment, but again lower than rivals like China (72.0%), the U.S. (62.0%), and Japan (58.0%).

The report states that basic 5G coverage has reached “almost all citizens in the EU,” covering some 96.8% of households overall, and 88.9% of rural households. But when it comes to the next-generation in 5G SA, the continent lags. Where 21.6% of European base stations operate on average in SA, that’s considerably less than the U.S. (36%) and China (35%).

More stark is that in 21.6% of European base stations, actual commercial SA availability for end users is just 2.8%. Compare that to India, where, according to the report, it has a far lower share of base stations operating in 5G SA mode than the EU (10%) but much higher availability (50%).

The reasoning for lower figures was that 5G SA is “mostly limited to the business-to-business sector” in the EU at present, with Germany holding the highest share of such base stations with 63.2%, though commercial availability stands at a lowly 2.5%. Austria has the EU’s highest level of SA availability, though still modest at 8.7%.

The event saw stakeholders agree that 5G SA along with private networks are expected to play a key role in unlocking future value creation, and that expansion of investments then, including more availability, would help the continent to “monetize 5G fully.”

The European Commission launched the 5G Observatory back in 2018, with the group evolving to become a tool for gathering evidence from key industry voices to help shape policy. The European Commission said that by 2025, the EU reached 75.3% harmonized spectrum assignment, with several member states at near or full assignment.

But to ensure European networks are comparable with the world’s best, a GSMA report from earlier this year suggested that operators need to invest significantly more over the next decade. That report contends that where $550 billion is needed, only around $312 billion is expected to be accessible to operators, thereby leaving a sizable investment gap.