Call for Input for further guidance on 5G network slicing
Deadline: 6 February 2026, 17:00 CET
Background
BEREC observes that in the public debate some stakeholders call for greater certainty concerning the compatibility of innovative services, in particular those based on 5G network slicing, with Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 – the Open Internet Regulation (OIR). Similarly, the European Commission, in its latest Report on the implementation of the open internet access provisions of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120, emphasised that greater legal certainty in this area would be beneficial to both innovators and consumers. This view was repeated in its Call for Evidence on its planned Digital Networks Act legislative initiative.
Submit your contributions
Against this backdrop, BEREC kindly invites all interested stakeholders to provide inputs that will inform BEREC’s drafting of additional guidance on the compatibility of 5G network slicing-based services with the OIR. BEREC is aware that the principles of network slicing and quality of services differentiation can be applied in the context of other communication technologies (e.g. 4G, 6G, Wi-Fi, Fixed Network, etc.). The results of this exercise are intended to be applied in a technologically neutral way.
Details on the inputs BEREC is seeking can be found in the following sections. Where applicable, when answering the questions below, please describe as concretely as possible difficulties encountered and suggested improvements.
All stakeholders are invited to submit their contributions via email to [email protected] by 6 February 2026, 17:00 CET.
Contributions should preferably be submitted in English. Please ensure that the overall size of the email (including attachments) is not larger than 2 MB. Upon submitting the contribution via email, an automatic confirmation reply will be generated. If this confirmation email is not received, the submission of the contribution was not successful and should be sent again.
We strongly encourage all stakeholders to submit their contributions as early as possible. Contributions received after the above-mentioned deadline will not be considered.
In accordance with BEREC’s privacy policy on public consultations, all contributions will be published on the BEREC website, taking into account requests for confidentiality and publication of personal data. Upon submission, stakeholders can request confidentiality of all or part of the documents submitted to the public consultation. If there is no clear indication that all or parts of the documents are confidential, BEREC will presume that the documents can be made publicly available. Please note that it is also possible to submit both a confidential and a public version of a given contribution.
1. Network Slicing Outlook
1. To what extent have you already deployed network slicing and are you considering deploying new slices? Please describe the slicing implementation and associated use case(s).
2. In your view, how will network slicing, as a concept and technology, develop in the upcoming years? Please describe the use cases that you believe to be prominent and would need to be taken into account in this exercise.
3. How do you see the role of CAMARA network APIs or other similar concepts to manage network slicing in the upcoming years?
2. General Regulatory Questions
Given the OIR and BEREC’s guidelines on the implementation of the OIR:
1. As it concerns the conception, development, marketing, implementation and operation of services relying on 5G network slicing, what are, if any, the specific issues and/or challenges (e.g. ambiguity, gaps) with the existing guidance provided by BEREC? If applicable, please describe the issues that will and/or have prevented, impeded or otherwise challenged the implementation of such services.
2. Assuming the current rules do not change, what form of additional clarity or guidance could BEREC usefully provide with a view to ensuring that the OIR continues to be a driver of innovation in this area, i.e., by offering sufficient regulatory predictability to business cases?
3. Regarding the 5G slicing applications/use cases/services mentioned below, what is, in your view, the likelihood that they will not give rise to OIR conformity concerns? Please detail (a) your reasoning and (b) whether more guidance is needed.
- Reliability enhancements and priority for public emergency services
- QoS enhancements (reliability, latency, jitter) for telemedicine applications like remote surgery
- Capacity reservation and QoS guarantees for virtual private networks
- QoS enhancements for IPTV Broadcasting
- Capacity/QoS guarantees for tiered quality services for IAS (e.g. IAS with different QoS per subscription)
4. Notwithstanding Question 3 (of section 2), are there any 5G network slicing-based application(s)/use case(s)/service(s) that, in your view, are (or are in all likelihood) in line with the OIR? Please detail your reasoning.
3. Specific Regulatory Questions regarding Article 3 (5) OIR
Given the OIR and BEREC’s guidelines on the implementation of the OIR, in particular Article 3 (5):
1. Have you encountered any examples of regulatory uncertainty that have prevented, impeded or otherwise challenged your implementation of 5G network slicing-based public specialised services?
2. If so, what were the specific problem(s) and which specific requirement(s), relating to Article 3 (5) OIR, therefore need(s) further guidance? Please describe concrete improvements that would be useful to overcome the problem(s) you encountered.
Bearing in mind the two questions above and differentiating between current and future (projected) use cases/concepts:
3. Why is optimisation necessary in order to meet specific QoS requirements of these content, applications or services and are there any difficulties in interpreting what “necessary” means?
4. How would you address the possibility that advances in IAS technological capacities render the provision of a given specialized service no longer objectively necessary?
5. With regards to network capacity:
5.1 How do you ensure that network capacity remains sufficient when providing specialised services alongside IAS?
5.2 Are there any issues in interpreting whether network capacity is "sufficient" in this context?
6. How do you ensure that services based on quality guarantees are not used or offered as a replacement for IAS and what criteria do (or would) you use to justify your view that that these services do not substitute IAS?
7. How do you ensure that these services are not to the detriment of the availability or general quality of IAS and what criteria do (or would) you apply for assessing this?
4. Specific Regulatory Questions regarding Art. 3 (3) OIR
Given the OIR and BEREC’s guidelines on the implementation of the OIR, in particular Article 3 (3):
1. Have you encountered any examples of regulatory uncertainty that have prevented, impeded or otherwise challenged your implementation 5G network slicing-based services?
2. If so, what were the specific problem(s) and which specific requirement(s), relating to Article 3 (3) OIR therefore need(s) further guidance? Please describe concrete improvements that would be useful to overcome the problem(s) you encountered.
Bearing in mind the two questions above and differentiating between current and future (projected) use cases/concepts:
3. Regarding “equal treatment” of traffic:
3.1 How do you ensure “equal treatment” of traffic providing IAS via 5G network slicing?
3.2 Are there any difficulties in interpreting this requirement?
4. Regarding “reasonable traffic management”:
4.1 What kind of traffic management measures do you consider “reasonable”?
4.2 Do you have any difficulties in interpreting what is “reasonable” traffic management when providing IAS via 5G network slicing?
4.3 In particular, how do you identify technically equivalent traffic without monitoring the content, in order to treat equivalent traffic equally?