Mobile operators set out 6G position
September 27, 2023
By Colin Mann
Mobile industry forum the NGMN Alliance has published the 6G Position Statement: An Operator View, suggesting it guides a course for the future of communication networks by taking a proactive stance and emphasising the needs for a new paradigm for graceful evolution and successful value creation and delivery.
“Our publication provides a clear statement of intent from the Network Operator community, that the traditional way of introducing a new technology generation must evolve,” said Arash Ashouriha, Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board and SVP Group Technology at Deutsche Telekom. “NGMN is committed to ensuring that 6G delivers tangible benefits to end-users, simplifying network operations and ensuring sustainability, while offering compelling new experiences”, he added.
“Whatever 6G might become, it will be built on the foundations of 5G,” added said Luke Ibbetson, Member of the NGMN Alliance Board and Head of Group R&D at Vodafone. “This publication shines a light on the challenges our industry faces in delivering compelling new 6G services and capabilities for end-users. Simultaneously, as we embark on this journey towards the 6G era, we are actively steering network disaggregation and an open, interoperable cloud native architecture.”
The publication outlines how Network Operators envision the realisation of a successful evolution to 6G and issuing a call to the industry to embrace this transformative direction. The publication covers an operator position on such key requirements and design considerations as network simplification, absolute energy reduction, network AI transformation and predictive network management, safe and resilient infrastructure, global 6G standards, software upgrade to 6G, no intrinsic need for hardware refresh, no compromise to existing services (Voice) and access across mobile, fixed and non-terrestrial networks.
“With this 6G Position Statement, we continue focusing on providing guidance and requirements to the industry in the areas of our three strategic focus topics, which build on each other,” commented Anita Doehler, CEO at NGMN Alliance. “It is another valuable example of joint global MNO efforts within NGMN which will continue working on 6G E2E requirements, by collaborating with our entire Partnership for the benefits of the ecosystem and end-users.”