The road to 6G: Building ecosystem advocacy

?

The GSA supports the harmonisation and assignment of spectrum in a range of frequency bands for 5G services. But it’s also looking many years into the future with work already underway on 6G – we speak with the team leading this industry advocacy.

Spectrum is a finite resource which is probably the most succinct justification for the formation in 2016 of the GSA’s Spectrum Group. Today it is one of the largest mobile industry spectrum groups, a global advocacy and technical team of over 185 spectrum experts from GSA Executive and Ordinary Members. For 5G, it is supporting the harmonisation and assignment of spectrum in a range of frequency bands: high-band, mid-band and low-band and the group’s work also support input to the next World Radiocommunications Conferences; WRC-23 and WRC-27.

?This emphasis on the three spectrum bands is important. Operator access to all bands will enable outdoor and indoor coverage needs to be fully met and the complete set of mass-market 5G services to be provided – ideally through a sustainable business model that delivers the best socio-economic value.

?The Spectrum Group is subdivided into various, highly focused teams. These include regional groupings as well as global teams that focus on such areas as high-band, mid-band, low-band, spectrum licensing and messaging.

?There’s also an ITU team. The ITU is the United Nations specialised agency for information and communication technologies and one of its functions is to allocate global radio spectrum. GSA involvement in the allocation and assignment of new spectrum begins with the ITU and the World Radiocommunication Conferences where all the world’s regulators world get together to agree on spectrum matters, including those relevant to 4G, 5G, future 6G & IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications as it’s known in the ITU).

?However, the process can actually start a lot earlier. As Stuart Cooke, Chair of GSA Global Spectrum Team, says: “Getting new spectrum into the market requires us to do around ten years of work at the regulatory level. For example, next year the ITU will see the 2023 World Radiocommunication Conference start discussions on what ITU calls IMT 2030 or what we call 6G.”

?Cooke explains the process. “IMT 6G spectrum will be recommended at WRC-23, but not until the next conference four years later in 2027 will the frequency bands be debated. To get something onto the agenda for WRC-27 you need to propose it at WRC-23. ?As well as reusing the existing mobile spectrum one of the other areas we’re looking at are additional spectrum bands from within the frequency ranges 7 to 24 GHz and the sub-TeraHertz 92 to 300 GHz range for 6G. That’s our aim: to provide contributions to the ITU’s programme as well as the regional and national arenas. We’ve been working on this for some time already; by the time of the launch of 6G from around the year 2030 onwards the process will have taken some ten years.”

?As part of this preparation, GSA Spectrum Group has already formed a 6G team to begin the process of gathering and building consensus across the mobile ecosystem.

?Cooke adds, “We also believe if 6G is going to share with more other radio services what we need from the regulators is very early debate on how we can share with what is already there. What are the requirements that are needed to make that possible? That discussion starts now – not in 2030. It needs to be debated well in advance of when 3GPP starts to standardise.”

?Of course, in addition to the ITU activities, regional and national regulators can assign spectrum for use by 5G/6G/IMT to other frequency bands. However, as a kind of global framework for harmonisation ITU & WRC recommendations and regulations carry a lot of weight.

But WRC-23 won’t just be about 6G. National administrations and regional groupings like Asia’s APT, Europe’s CEPT, Americas CITEL, Africa’s ATU, have also agreed to study, for the next WRC-23 conference, additional spectrum opportunities in the mid-band frequencies between 3.3 and 10.5 GHz, as well as spectrum sub-1 GHz. This will help enable 5G services to be further deployed in wider geographical areas, including rural ones, as well as meet the anticipated increased traffic needs of population centres in the latter half of this decade.

?The GSA knows this process well. At WRC-19, global spectrum regulators identified several millimetre wave frequency bands for 5G IMT.

?Joe Barrett, President of GSA, explains: “We were a part of the difficult but ultimately successful negotiations that took place in the run up to identifying several millimetric wave frequency bands for 5G IMT – notably 26 & 40 GHz – and agreement to study additional spectrum opportunities in the mid-band frequencies between 3.3 and 10.5 GHz, as well as spectrum below?1 GHz. The approval of 3GPP New Radio (NR) as an IMT-2020 global specification was another landmark.”

But identifying spectrum is only part of the story. Will it be made available? In mid bands, yes; most administrations have cleared that spectrum. But can satellite and terrestrial share the high bands? Should regulators make low-band TV spectrum co-primary mobile, especially as some regulators want the flexibility in the future to be able to have the option to offer 4G and 5G in that spectrum? Expect this to be part of the WRC-23 debate alongside 6G.

?But, you might say, much of the world has yet to licence 5G, let alone 6G. And you’d be right. That’s why the GSA Spectrum Group also has teams focused on specific industry topics to develop messaging, initiatives, documents, presentations and regulatory support for the successful global deployment of 5G.

?Spectrum, the GSA believes, should be made available in the most effective and harmonised manner globally, in terms of spectrum assignment and technical conditions. There should be no undue restriction of the provision of mobile services in locations where those services are required.

Don’t forget, harmonisation in this context refers to spectrum assignment as well as technical conditions. GSA advocates technology and service-neutral licensing of a sufficient amount of contiguous spectrum for 5G per network, with suitable regulatory conditions, to support the mass-market delivery of high bandwidth applications and services.

That won’t be easy. Many countries may argue that certain ITU-assigned bands are not available.

As Cooke says, “That’s why our work isn’t over once the spectrum has been identified. At regional level decisions are still being made and the spectrum licences assigned.”

The GSA Spectrum Group offering includes regulatory experience, technical experts, research, reports and databases. Thus, Cooke adds, “We can help regulators and administrations understand 5G spectrum requirements, including spectrum reports, spectrum auctions and spectrum pricing. We can refer to the GAMBoD databases which feature up-to-date information across devices, chipsets, mobile spectrum, networks and operators. We also have a lot of information on licencing around the world to show what early adopters like the US, Japan, China and Korea have done and why and how it works.”

?Barrett explains, “We can also produce reports on, for example, how 5G can share with military, satellite, fixed link and broadcast systems. We can show regulators how it can be reasonable and feasible to share or why spectrum needs to be cleared, based on our own sharing studies and results from the consultants we have worked with.”

Barrett adds “We also do real-world studies on what's actually being deployed and how spectrum has been managed. We clarify and update information constantly. Sometimes we can apply new research on the actual use of spectrum for non-mobile purposes like satellite to show there may be more unused spectrum available than originally thought.”

This advocacy takes place through partnership with local associations and operators (or operator groups) wherever possible. “We don’t want to be seen as an outside grouping laying down the law. At the same time, we don’t want to duplicate our message. If we can work effectively alongside another global or regional organisation like the GSMA, COAI then we do.”

?So, yes, spectrum is a finite resource. But identifying it and licensing it is a very long process. While 5G is still being licensed 6G may be the distant future for some people. But as far as the GSA Spectrum Group is concerned that future has already started.

You can read more industry insights article in our magazine, Connect, available to download here: https://gsacom.com/paper/gsa-connect-ezine-july-2022/

GSA Spectrum Group?

The GSA Spectrum Group develops strategies and plans, and contributes studies and technical analysis to international, regional and individual country policymakers and regulators to facilitate the timely availability of spectrum for use by mobile network operators.

The Spectrum Group is the supplier focus group for technical and regulatory matters of radio spectrum pertaining to the successful evolution of International Mobile Telecommunication (IMT) and associated radiocommunication systems and comprises a team made up of spectrum and regulatory affairs specialists from our Executive Member and Member companies.

?The Spectrum Group is participating in the study work leading up the World Radiocommunication Conference meeting in 2023, (WRC-23).

?In addition, our spectrum reports regularly provide updates on global spectrum harmonisation efforts and developments including auctions, assignments, allocations, and re-farming activities.