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THE ROAD TO 6G : BUILDING

ECOSYSTEM ADVOCACY

By Joe Barrett, President, Global mobile

Suppliers’ Association

The GSA is one of the largest mobile But identifying spectrum is only part of the story. Will it be made
industry spectrum groups, a global available? In mid bands, most administrations have cleared that
spectrum. Spectrum, the GSA believes, should be made available
advocacy and technical team of over in the most effective and harmonised manner globally, in terms
185 spectrum experts from GSA of spectrum assignment and technical conditions. There should
be no undue restriction on the provision of mobile services in
membership - focused into regional locations where those services are required. Harmonisation in
and work-group teams. this context refers to spectrum assignment as well as technical
conditions. GSA advocates technology and service-neutral
For 5G, GSA is supporting the harmonisation and assignment licensing of a sufficient amount of contiguous spectrum for 5G
of spectrum in a range of frequency bands, namely, high- per network, with suitable regulatory conditions, to support
bands, mid-bands and low-bands. The group’s work spans the mass-market delivery of high bandwidth applications and
other areas also, including providing input to the next World services.
Radiocommunications Conferences; WRC-23 and WRC-27.
GSA’s advocacy takes place through partnership with local
The emphasis on the three spectrum ranges is important. associations and operators (or operator groups) wherever
Operator access to all bands will enable outdoor and indoor possible and working effectively alongside global or regional
coverage needs to be fully met and the complete set of mass- organisations like the GSMA, COAI, and of course standards
market 5G services to be provided – ideally through a sustainable bodies such as 3GPP.
business model that delivers the best socio-economic value.
The approval of 3GPP New Radio (NR) as an IMT-2020 global
GSA involvement in the allocation and assignment of specification was another landmark for GSA. As part of its
new spectrum, as well as safeguarding existing spectrum, preparation for 6G, GSA is bringing together its members to
encompasses many fronts including the ITU and the begin the process of gathering and building consensus across
WRCs where all the world’s regulators come together the mobile ecosystem – including helping support the 3GPP
to agree on updating a binding international treaty on standardisation process.
radiocommunications, including those relevant to spectrum for
IMT (International Mobile Telecommunications). 6G right now is still in pre-standardization phase so the
main 6G activity of the GSA will focus on feeding into the ITU
But this process actually starts a lot earlier. Getting new process on IMT-2030. This work will help support the 3GPP
spectrum into the market could require around ten years of 6G standardisation time frame. Through participation of GSA
work at the industry and regulatory level. For example, next year members in collaborative research projects in different regions
the ITU will see the WRC-23 start discussions on what potential around the world we ensure that GSA’s work is informed by the
spectrum ranges to be studied for what we call 6G. different geo-political contexts as we prepare for 6G.
Future spectrum opportunities for IMT could be named at WRC- GSA members are all strongly committed in continuing the
23, but it is not until the next conference later in 2027 (WRC-27) standardisation for both the evolution of 5G and 6G, enabling
after four years of deliberations that the frequency bands will be the continuation of the successful global mobile ecosystem in
finally decided. Our aim is to provide contributions to the ITU’s 3GPP. GSA also undertakes discussion in support of the 3GPP
programme as well as the regional and national arenas with standardization process as well as well enabling the smooth
regards to suitable bands to be studied. We’ve been working on global standardisation process between ITU-R and 3GPP.
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 Identifying spectrum and standardising new technologies
ten years. is a very long process that starts well before auctions are held
and networks are deployed. While 5G is still being licensed
Of course, in addition to the ITU activities, regional and and deployed, 6G may be the distant future for some people.
national regulators can assign spectrum for use by 5G/6G/IMT But as far as GSA is concerned, that path to the future has
in other frequency bands. However, as a global framework for already started.
harmonisation, ITU and WRC decisions carry a lot of weight.
The GSA knows this process well. At WRC-19, global spectrum
regulators identified several millimetre wave frequency bands
for 5G IMT. GSA was 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 www.gsacom.com
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 towards
WRC-23.
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