European 5G suffers from fragmentation, two-speed competitiveness  

With the latest generation of mobile communications networks midway through its technology cycle, timely spectrum allocation and proactive policies are defining Europe’s 5G coverage leaders, according to a study by mobile network analyst Ookla.

The study used Speedtest Intelligence data to benchmark progress made in the second quarter of 2025 towards the EU’s flagship 5G deployment objectives, including the Digital Decade 2030 goal of achieving 100% outdoor 5G population coverage.

The analysis laid bare the differences in a region’s 5G health depending on whether or not capital spending on network expansion has peaked for most countries and where the flagship low- and mid-band spectrum auctions necessary for 5G deployment are complete. It found that policy more often acted as a barrier and not a catalyst, with Western and Eastern European countries lagging behind those in the North and South.

Ookla also pointed out that mobile data traffic growth is slowing for the first time, and European operators have been more cautious than peers in North America or Asia in adopting new technologies such as 5G Standalone (SA), largely due to challenging operating conditions related to sluggish average revenue per user (ARPU) growth.

The study found that in Q2 2025, Nordic and Southern European countries maintained a substantial lead in 5G availability, driven by recent 700 MHz band deployments that drove double-digit coverage gains in countries such as Sweden and Italy. By contrast, 5G availability in Central and Western European countries such as Belgium, the UK and Hungary remained less than half that of the leaders. On average, EU mobile subscribers spent 44.5% of their time connected to 5G networks in Q2 2025, up from 32.8% a year earlier.

The deployment and adoption of 5G SA in Europe was found to have remained sluggish, increasing slowly from a very low base and further widening the region’s gap with North America and Asia. Spain emerged as a clear leader in 5G SA deployment, reaching an 8% Speedtest sample share compared with the EU average of just 1.3% as of Q2 2025. Ookla attributed Spain’s progress as being driven by proactive use of EU recovery funds to subsidise 5G SA roll-outs in underserved areas, with a focus on bridging the rural-urban digital divide.

The survey also revealed that fragmented 5G availability across Europe was being driven by a complex mix of national policies on spectrum assignment and broader economic factors, rather than by simple geographic or demographic differences. 

5G availability was found to be more strongly correlated with policy-driven factors such as spectrum allocation timelines and costs, coverage obligations, subsidy mechanisms, and regulations for infrastructure sharing and permitting, rather than with structural factors like urbanisation rates or the number of operators. This indicated that 5G competitiveness is shaped less by technology gaps or inherent market imbalances and more by effective policy execution, said Ookla.

The leading markets for 5G availability were Denmark with a coverage rate of 83.9%, followed by Sweden (77.8%) and Greece (76.4%). By contrast, UK 5G availability has a coverage rate of just 45.2% in Q2 2025. That said, while the UK lagged in 5G availability, it did rank among the top three countries in Europe for 5G SA deployment progress. In Q2 2025, the UK recorded a 5G SA sample share of 3.6%, which is more than double the EU average of 1.3%.

On average, EU mobile subscribers spent 44.5% of their time connected to 5G networks in Q2 2025, up from 32.8% in Q2 2024. By comparison, UK mobile subscribers spent just 37.6% of their time on 5G networks during the same period in Q2 2025.