This page introduces 5G corridors, which are projects designed to provide seamless 5G connectivity to vehicles even as they cross borders, thereby paving the way for autonomous driving on main road, train and maritime routes. To date, twelve “digital cross-border corridors” have been established to accommodate live tests of 5G for Cooperative Connected and Automated Mobility.
In the context of the 2030 Digital Compass Communication and ‘The European way for the Digital Decade’ outlining the European approach to a digitalised economy and society, the Commission is reviewing Europe’s 5G strategy as set out in the 5G Action Plan of 2016.
Europe has taken the lead in developing 5G industrial ecosystems with ambitious trial investments offering to enable market opportunities. Building 5G lead markets will be of key importance in this context. And, because industry R&I investments tend to relocate where markets are more advanced.
One area of high potential for such a lead market is 5G-based Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM). The Connecting Europe Facility Digital programme should support the rollout of 5G Corridors for CAM. This will unlock this ecosystem in Europe following a Strategic Deployment Agenda (SDA) developed by a broad range of stakeholders.
In order to prepare for the deployment of 5G cross-border corridors for CAM, the MSs signed, in March 2017 in Rome, a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the view to intensify cross-border cooperation for large-scale testing and pre-deployment. This agreement was preceded by bilateral initiatives memorandum of understanding, MoU) between Luxembourg, France and Germany, and among the Nordic countries (Norway, Finland, Sweden), and has been followed since then by a number of agreements between Spain and Portugal, between Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, and between Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland over the “Via Baltica”, with an extension between Lithuania and Poland. The more recent agreements include the “Figueres – Perpignan” cross-border corridor between France and Spain and a cross-border teleoperated transport for roads and maritime based on 5G connectivity in the ports of Antwerp (Belgium) and Vlissingen (Netherlands). The table below presents the situation regarding the on-going initiatives.
