GSMA: European Mobile Economy Report 2025

GSMA released the "European Mobile Economy Report 2025", which stated that by the end of 2024, 5G will account for 30% of European mobile connections, equivalent to 200 million; the global average is 24%.

5G is expected to become the dominant mobile technology in continental Europe by 2026 and already accounts for the majority of connections in Germany and Switzerland, while adoption rates in Denmark, Finland, Norway and the UK have exceeded 40%. It is expected to provide an additional €164 billion to the overall economy by 2030, with 80% of connections in continental Europe expected to be 5G by 2030, compared to 18% for 4G.

Maximizing the potential of 5G

One promising area is advanced 5G technologies such as 5G Standalone (SA) and 5G-Advanced, which are gaining traction and will help unlock new use cases and monetization opportunities.

In Europe, operators are beginning to deploy 5G SA, which does not rely on LTE (Long Term Evolution) to operate, providing opportunities for new applications. As of September 2024, 18 European operators have launched 5G SA services, including EE in the UK and Free in France.

Maintaining Europe's global competitiveness

Meeting Europe's digital infrastructure needs is an important first step in revitalizing Europe's telecoms industry as an engine of competitiveness and prosperity. The benefits of increased investment will not be limited to the telecoms and technology sectors, but will also benefit all other industries.

European operators and artificial intelligence

European operators are at the forefront of AI and generative AI (GenAI) development, with 36% of operators having extensively deployed GenAI across multiple business areas. The report highlights recent applications by European operators such as Deutsche Telekom, EE, Orange and Vodafone in network optimization, security enhancement and customer service.

Other key findings from the report include:

In 2023, the mobile industry will add €1.1 trillion in economic value to the European economy, accounting for 5% of European GDP.

Europe is a major player in the GSMA Open Gateway, with committed operators accounting for more than 20% of the signatories despite accounting for only 10% of global mobile connections.

5G is expected to contribute €164 billion to the European economy by 2030, of which 34% is expected to come from manufacturing, followed by public administration (19%) and services (12%).

5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) has emerged as an important use case in both the consumer and enterprise sectors, complementing operators’ enhanced mobile broadband offerings.

It is estimated that by 2030, there will be 545 million licensed cellular IoT connections in Europe, with Germany accounting for a quarter of them.

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