In Madrid, during the December 3GPP Plenary meetings, two of our TSG Chairs discussed the current state of Rel-19, then looked towards the next release and beyond – towards 6G.

Wanshi Chen first covered RAN Rel-19 progress, saying that progress is good, with some important check-points met, he mentioned Ambient-IoT as an example of a feature that is currently moving from the study phase towards normative work (TSs). The release is on schedule for its functional freeze date of September 2025.

Peter Schmitt then talked about the main highlights of CT’s work this week. Release 18 is now completed and the group is working - in the main - on Release 19, with some requirements still to come in from SA2.

Moving on to discuss the two workshops held in Madrid, during TSGs#106, Wanshi described the parallel tracks in Rel-20, one for 5G Advanced specifications work and the other for early 6G studies. The TSG RAN endorsed Workshop summary is in RP-243292.

Turning to the TSG SA Workshop, Peter discussed 5G Advanced in Rel-20 and the process this week that led to the number of proposals to be refined to around 14 features. The SA summary (SP-241989) was send to SA2 (Architecture) for them to prepare 5G Advanced study item descriptions for the core proposals by March, and for the remaining proposals in June.

Other topics covered:

• How will TSG RAN keep 5G Advanced and 6G on two separate pathways in Rel-20?
• What will the March joint workshops on 6G (March 10-11) cover?
• How will 6G studies affect TSG CT & its decisions on future protocols?
• How will IMT-2030 aspects be dealt with in TSG RAN?