On the marketing side, there may be a race to be crowned Europe’s ‘first 5G operator’, but in reality, deploying 5G at scale – and supporting a host of demanding new services from virtual reality to the Internet of Things – will put significant stress on the finances of some of the region’s already debt-laden and profit-squeezed MNOs. Italy’s TIM, Vodafone and Telefonica are all considering divestments, partly to pay the 5G bills. Since unlicensed and shared spectrum options for 5G New Radio – which would help improve the cost base – will not be commercial until at least 2021; and since the first applications for 5G are mainly in traditional consumer mobile broadband; there is a real case, for…