3GPP experts have met in Melbourne, Australia for the 105^th plenaries of the project’s Technical Specification Groups.

On Monday, September 9^th an opening ceremony featured welcome speeches from First Nation representatives and the Telstra leadership, as the traditional custodians of the land and the Australian telecommunications operator kindly host a week of 3GPP meetings.

Sri Amirthalingam, Telstra Networks Executive Director, welcomed the project to Melbourne. He told 3GPP experts that Australia is made up of 7.7 million square kilometres of land mass, which represents a major coverage challenge, to stretch network out to metro and to sparsely populated rural areas. Amirthalingam praised 3GPPs support for features that help, mentioning both long range extended cells and work on some unique band combinations for Australia.

He told 3GPP’s opening session that many aspects of the work on 5G-Advanced are key to delivering the network as a platform ready for some very exciting use cases, that will mature to build the bridge to 6G. He told delegates that in a variety of ways, from the work on NTN, to bringing AI into the system or on more efficient use of spectrum, the work of 3GPP is making a big impact on their business.

On Monday two plenaries have started, with TSG CT – Core Network and Terminals and the TSG RAN – Radio Access Network both taking place. On Tuesday, TSG SA – Service and System Aspects will start – completing this week’s line-up.