Guy Daniels, TelecomTV (00:04):
Hello and welcome to our new series on defining 6G Networks. I'm Guy Daniels and this is a preview of our new special series on 6G. And before you throw up your hands in horror at the mere mention of 6G, I urge you to wait. 6G absolutely is happening. Yes, the focus today is on 5G. Accelerating the deployment of 5G standalone, which has barely started and on monetizing 5G investments, which is proving tremendously difficult. Nobody, not least the mobile operators wants to get distracted by the next generation. However, the time has now come, the hugely complex standardization work for 6G is about to start and the first official preparations have just been made. So now is absolutely the right time to begin defining 6G networks views expressed this year will lead to decisions taken next year that will dictate the direction of the standards work, which will ultimately lead to the release of technology specifications that will define 6G.

(01:25):
So whilst the first commercial deployments of 6G will most likely occur in early 2030, the groundwork is being set today. A brief background then on standards and 6G. Yes, the ITU has its IMT 2030 program and technically the 3G PPP is just one standards body that will submit its proposal. There may well be others explaining this complex relationship probably needs its own dedicated program. But in terms of cellular 3G PP is where the real work occurs. And if we succeed in creating a single global standard for the industry than it will be the 3G P's proposal. And that's because back in April last year, the standards bodies of Europe, north America, China, India, Korea, and Japan announced their joint commitment to make 6G happen in three gpp and they have a logo to prove it. The 3G PP work is conducted by technology and standards experts from the whole ecosystem constantly evolving cellular standards and specifications.

(02:43):
And these are grouped into major releases with work on each release conducted in parallel. Let's take a look at the expected timelines. This is how the 3G PP likes to illustrate the overlapping timelines of its major standards releases. So whilst the 5G focused release 19 will reach its conclusion later this year, release 20 work which covers 5G advanced is already well underway and should run until early 2027. 6G work will feature in release 21, which is likely to start around the middle of 2026. The key 6G date here is the standards freeze when release 21 drops and is ready for commercial implementation. The exact date is still to be agreed as is the entire timeline for the release, but it's highly likely to be in the second half of 2029. But there's another key 6G date, which is on this graphic march this year.

(03:47):
That's when it held its 6G workshop in Korea. And this is what we are most interested in right now. All 3G PPP stakeholders from across the organization were invited to submit proposals that covered the overall 6G system architecture, the radio access network, and the core network requirements. And more than 600 delegates attended in person with a further thousand participating online and a total of 219 by our account. Separate submissions were received and considered, or rather they were noted to use a formal 3G PP language. No concrete action as such was taken at this stage. The workshop was held to hear the views of the industry and basically the 3G PPP asked a very simple question, what do you want from 6G? Well now they have to somehow find a common solution that will satisfy everyone or mostly everyone. But these submissions represent an important moment in the evolution to 6G.

(05:01):
This is the ultimate wishlist. It doesn't get any better than this whatever happens over the next five to 10 years. This is the original concept of what 6G could and perhaps should be. So what we have done is to closely study every single submission document, whether PDF, PowerPoint or Word Doc, every single one of them, which was quite a task. We then divided them into three categories, vendors, operators, and what we are calling community IE, everyone else. And for each of these three categories, we have produced a special research report. The first one out next week focuses on the vendor submissions. We have distilled all of the various views to identify common areas of interest, new business opportunities and the associated challenges. And we provide summaries of the views of each of the contributors in excess of 200 different companies. We will then host a panel discussion on telecom TV to discuss our findings and conclude with a final report that considers the next steps and the way ahead for the industry. And best of all, perhaps we are making this research freely available to our audience. If you are a registered viewer of telecom tv, then you'll have access to the full series of reports. Don't forget the first report is due to be published in the next few days, so please watch out for details and until then, goodbye for now.