The European Union is keeping up the 5G activity barrage by signing up to a cooperation pact on 5G technology development with Japan to add to the agreement it’s already forged with South Korea.

The idea is to put some oomph behind the Digital Single Market concept with the EU and Japan endorsing a joint vision for 5G and agreeing to deepen their cooperation on Research and Innovation. It’s hoped the pact will see the development of a common understanding  of 5G - its requirements, use cases and so on - which could flow naturally to a close agreement over harmonised frequencies for 5G, crucial if the market is to scale up and crucial for cross-border roaming for both individuals and things (like connected shipping containers and so on) that are expected to develop in an ultra-connected world.

According to Gunther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society 5G is set to be the “backbone of our digital economies and societies worldwide. This is why we strongly support and seek a global consensus and cooperation on 5G."

Europe and Japan will also invest €12 million during the next two years in 5G-related projects and will set up a joint funding mechanism to collaborate on projects that help the Internet of Things and ‘big data’ especially  to get some extra traction.  In particular the alliance is eyeing 5G/IoT applications such as connected cars and e-health.