Cullen International updated its benchmark on coverage obligations across 21 European countries.

17 out of 21 observed countries oblige operators to cover certain roads and railway routes. In some countries these obligations cover only motorways, primary roads and selected railway routes. Other spectrum regulators obliged operators to cover the entire railway network and also provincial roads or district roads.

Regulators have been creative in defining other infrastructure that should be covered by mobile networks: airports, sea ports, train stations, bus stations, metro networks, waterways, border crossings, tourism areas, bike trails, business parks, hospitals, education institutions, sports facilities, power stations, agricultural development projects. Some of these targets are mandatory. Some regulators defined lists of possible coverage projects from which operators could choose.

European coverage obligations are normally technology neutral. Two countries require continued coverage with 2G technology. Five regulators obliged operators to use certain bands for 5G, or to deploy a certain number of 5G base stations. Some regulators defined minimum download speeds that de facto require 5G technology. In one country, all transmitters with more than five watts in the 3.5 GHz band must provide a download bandwidth of at least 240 Mbps (shared by all users in the area).

The most common obligation is the requirement to cover a certain percentage of households (18 of 21 countries). Less than half of countries require coverage of a certain percentage of territory. These targets are often very demanding, in a range between 95% and 99.8%.  

For more information and access to the benchmark, please click on “Access the full content” - or on “Request Access”, in case you are not subscribed to our European Radio Spectrum service.