The MNOs need people like me

The UK’s Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) has recently published a briefing note on 6G[1]. It very much falls into the “5G-on-steriods” camp. But rather than criticise the contents, which I’ve already effectively done in my book “The 6G Manifesto”, I wanted to look at a different issues it exposes – the lack of a voice from mobile network operators (MNOs).

The POST note lists its contributors at the end. They have chosen some excellent individuals who I respect, but they come broadly from academia, regulator or manufacturers. There is nobody there from an MNO. On the face of it that seems a stunning omission since the UK mobile industry is very heavily MNO dominated in the absence of any major manufacturers. And without MNOs there will be no 6G, so their voice would seem critical.

Why did POST not consult the operators? I wasn’t involved in any way in this work, so I can’t know, but I can conjecture. I suspect it is because individuals from the MNOs have a relatively low profile. They are less likely to speak at conferences, to write blogs or similar, to be visible at key events and critically to put forward “newsworthy” viewpoints. It may well be the case that they have no reason to do much of any of these in their day job, and indeed that their employer is cautious about allowing individuals to emerge, and this may make sound business sense much of the time, but not when it comes to new generations.

MNOs, where they have raised their voices, have mostly said that they do not want 6G, or that they want something minimal – a “software-only” upgrade. Yet none of that makes it into the POST note, nor indeed into almost all visions of 6G that have been published.

MNOs have a growing problem of visibility. The POST set of contributors should have included at least one person, if not more, from each of the UK’s four MNOs. It had nobody. No wonder that politicians, journalists and the public fell for the 5G hype and will do so again with 6G.

It would not take all that much to get a small number of key individuals “out there” on behalf of the MNOs, setting out a clear message in an engaging and compelling way. It is something that individuals like myself can help with, either behind the scenes or as a nominated spokesperson from one or more operators. The cost to MNOs of a sub-optimal 5G standard has been billions of dollars, spending a few thousands of dollars now on clear positioning could save them billions on 6G.

[1] https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/POST-PN-0734/POST-PN-0734.pdf