Global UN body ITU adopts 6G mobile technology trends

International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN agency for Communications and information technologies, Working Party 5D dealing with 5G and 6G global standards, adopted the new report on 6G mobile technology trends at its 41st meeting, which concluded on Friday 24th June 2022, after a two-week long hybrid meetingin Geneva, Switzerland.

The meeting was attended by over 220 delegates from 70 governments and 102 telecom companies from all around the world in Geneva and another 400 delegates participated virtually. IAFI participated in the meeting with 3 delegates in Geneva and 8 delegates virtually. In addition Indian administration had sent 5 government delegates to Geneva, while the TSDSI, Airtel and Jio also participated in the meeting virtually.

ITU-APT Foundation of India’s (IAFI) President Bharat Bhatia chaired the group on standards for Private and Industrial 5G along with Jitendra Singh, Vice President IAFI, who chaired the Drafting group for developing the ITU standard for Private and Industrial 5G.

The meeting approved the new Report on Future Technology Trends (FTT) in Mobile communications towards 6G. This report will now form the basis for a vision of the new 6G technology towards 2030 and beyond. This new technology is expected to be named as IMT-2030 and the standard for the same will now be developed by the ITU.

IAFI has already contributed to this new vision recommendation being developed by the ITU. In this meeting, the text on ubiquitous and seamless connectivity, particularly for remote and rural was coordinated by the IAFI.

In addition, ITU group chaired by IAFI is also developing a new report on IMT-Multimedia, which addresses the capabilities of 5G to distribute multimedia content including real-time multimedia interactive applications such as network video, digital magazine, digital newspaper, digital radio, social media, mobile TV, digital TV, touch media, etc. This report will also address the capabilities of 5G user devices and base station to support multimedia communications.

This ITU group lead by IAFI is also currently working on a new report on the private, industrial and enterprise usages of 5G which focuses on Industry 4.0 digital processes by connecting sensors and actuators, machines and workers in a most flexible way. Captive non-public and Private 5G networks is expected to unleash the real potential of Industry 4.0 applications.

IAFI had submitted 5 technical contributions to this 41st meeting of WP5D.These input documents relate to the draft new report of IMT above 100Ghz, draft new report of IMT Media, draft new report of IMT Terrestrial broadband remote coverage, draft new report on IMT in 4.9 GHz band and Compatibility studies on IMT system in the 6GHz band for Wi-Fi 6e.

DOT had also sent a strong Indian delegation for this meeting and also submitted several contributions with focus on WRC-23 agenda item 1.2 and the timeline for the development of 6G.

The 42nd Working Party 5D meeting will take place in October in Geneva.

CT Bureau