EU – Baltic States, Forum, Innovations, Internet, Latvia, Technology

1000 delegates and industry-leading professionals from organisations and institutions that are invested in a future with 5G will be meeting in Riga, Latvia, for three days of intense networking, policy-mapping, bilateral meetings, roundtables, hackathons, workshops, and keynote presentations.

As 5G technologies rapidly develop in Asia and the United States, the Baltic Sea Region will aim to establish itself as a driver in 5G technology deployment and commercialization within Europe in an attempt to establish a leading European region to serve as a trailblazer in European 5G policy, and by extension, deployment.

The problem leading to Europe's lag in 5G readiness is based on multiple factors, a large factor being the strict EU legislation regarding GDPR that limits the use of personal data. Additionally, Europe consists of a diverse and fragmented society, compared to the vast expanses of Asia and the United States with united regulation, in which it is easier to achieve compliance and an agreement on standards. The 5G Techritory Forum aims to solve both of these obstacles through providing the space for the different European parties to converge, converse, and decide, in order to lay the foundation for further cross-border, cross-sector, and cross-industry collaboration for a more rapid 5G deployment and commercialization. 

"The consolidation of Baltic Sea Region 5G players will be the starting point that will let us start discussions on becoming equal competitors with US and Asian markets. Independently, it's clear that we won't survive long. I believe that 5G Techritory will strengthen their participation in agreeing on regional priorities, as well as the ways in which they will be implemented or attained. In a global context, we are EU countries, but at the same time are also small, separate countries with varied legislation, business development visions, and instruments. However through agreeing on joint action, it makes us a joint business unit, which would be in line with the European Digital Single Market Strategy", and will offer us and our businesses better opportunities to develop themselves and their solution in our home markets." - Neils Kalniņš, 5G Techritory Programme Director

Latvia will become host to representatives from the leading organisations interested

in the development of 5G technologies. Participants will include regulatory representatives from the Nordic Council of Ministers, the ministers that are responsible for digitisation in their respective countries from around the Baltic Sea, representatives from the European Commission, the International Telecommunications Union, BEREC, and more. The commercial industry will be represented by leading players in 5G deployment, including Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, Deutsche Telecomm, Latvian Mobile Telephone, Huawei, and more. 

The event is expected to result in a kaleidoscope of decisions and output to fuel the next wave of 5G deployment in Europe. This will be in the form of national-level and EU-level policy recommendations stemming from the first-ever 5G policymakers' hackathon, joint resolutions from stakeholder roundtables, and an unquantifiable amount of bilateral decisions from inter-organizational meetings. Results will be updated regularly on the 5G Techritory website, and it will be possible to follow along the keynote talks live via LMT Straume.

The Forum is organised by the Electronic Communication Office of Latvia in co-operation with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and is powered by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia. The Forum is backed by Latvian Mobile Telephone (LMT) as a strategic partner, Rohde & Schwarz and Ericsson as the general sponsors.

Other international partners include Cisco, Microsoft, Qualcomm Incorporated, the Nordic Council of Ministers, 5G Alliance for Connected Industries and Automation (5G-ACIA), 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), 5G Infrastructure Association (5G IA), EMEA Satellite Operator's Association (ESOA), ERTICO, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), Global Mobile Suppliers Association (GSA), Global UTM Association (GUTMA) and the British Embassy in Riga.