5G Is a Success, but U.S. Could Fall Behind on 6G: CTIA's Javed

5G is a success story for the U.S. and is changing how people communicate, even though they may not always recognize it, Umair Javed, CTIA general counsel, said during the 6G Symposium Monday. Javed emphasized that the U.S. should make spectrum available at the same level as it is in other countries. Meanwhile, FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks warned the next 18-24 months are “an absolutely critical period for 6G.”

It will be a global technology and the U.S. needs to lead globally, Javed said: 6G should run on "a single standard. It should run on harmonized spectrum, and it should be designed with economic viability in mind.” We know 6G will need additional spectrum, particularly in the mid-band, and that’s “the biggest challenge facing 6G today.”

"For the first time," Javed said, "we are facing well-resourced and credible threats to our wireless leadership, from multiple vectors” and the U.S. government so far isn’t making spectrum available in the same amounts as other countries. “It’s not clear that we really have a process or a system in place that could do that even if we wanted to.”

“The elephant in the room” whenever 6G is discussed is whether 5G has lived up to expectations, Javed said. “The answer to that question is a resounding yes.” What's really being asked is how 5G has performed compared with 4G, he said: “4G was a widely successful technology and 5G networks are outperforming 4G networks every single day -- we just don’t hear about it in that way.” A network is like infrastructure “and people take infrastructure for granted, no matter how good it is.” Javed was a longtime adviser to FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel before joining CTIA.

“We need a concerted strategy, overcoming obstacles, ensuring that this rapidly developing technology reaches its full potential,” Starks said during an opening keynote. What's being done on 5G and 5G-advanced “will set the stage for 6G, and so this work is pressing, and it’s timely.”

Nimble and Secure

Networks are already becoming more nimble, secure and intelligent, Starks said. “While many of these advances are in early stages, in my mind, they offer a glimpse of the promise” of 6G. Network disaggregation and the decoupling of hardware and software functions of network components, which means they can be sourced from numerous vendors, is critical, he said.

“There is no doubt” that open platforms “are starting to really take root,” Starks said, noting Dish Wireless’s open radio access network in the U.S. and more than 100 ORAN deployments worldwide. “Network operators are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with open RAN” and “we’re all watching closely.”

The federal government “has an important role to play” supporting the development and deployment of open networks, Starks said. The FCC is doing what it can, he added, and the new 5G Fund includes up to $900 million in incentives for ORAN deployments (see 2408290041). Starks also noted NTIA’s recent ORAN symposium in Golden, Colorado (see 2409170061).

Starks stressed the importance of Congress restoring the FCC’s general auction authority. “Auctions help us free up the spectrum and put it into the hands of those who value it, quite simply, the most.” Starks also defended the administration’s national spectrum strategy.

In addition, 6G “presents an environmental challenge,” Starks noted. GSMA Intelligence predicts by 2030 mobile traffic will grow more than fourfold, he said. 6G will be the first wireless generation that fully incorporates AI, which will also mean a huge increase in data, he said. The next generation of standards for 6G and beyond must “double down on energy efficiency": “As we focus on enabling others to reduce emissions, we must also find ways to reduce the carbon footprint ourselves.”

People take a negative view of 5G because they feel like few “really blockbuster, game-changing” uses “are hitting mainstream,” Javed said. “I get that feeling, but I don’t think that means that the 5G revolution has stalled or … slowed.”

5G is deploying faster than any technology in the history of wireless, Javed said. “It has accomplished in three years what 4G did in five” and is available to more than 1 billion subscribers worldwide on 265 commercial networks. More than 2,000 5G devices are in use, 40% of which cost less than $200, he said.

5G is also attracting “record levels of investment from the private sector” including by wireless carriers in the U.S., Javed said. Investments are “paying off,” with wireless network speeds up 42% in just a year and data traffic up more than 40% this year. Americans used more wireless data in 2023 than from 2010 to 2018 combined, “and this is a trend that looks like it’s going to continue.”

5G networks also “played a pivotal role in helping us navigate a global health pandemic,” Javed said. 5G did more than keep people connected and businesses running during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said. “5G telemedicine helped address shortages in medical staff and resources.” Moreover, 5G deployments are reaching rural areas and unserved markets, he said. Some 20% of 5G broadband deployments are for Americans who are getting broadband for the first time. 5G is also bringing competition and making broadband more affordable.

We still don’t know what the “most compelling use case” for 6G will be, said David Young, vice president-technology policy and government relations at the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions. “We’re not going to know,” he said: “We will know because we’ll see what works and what the market adopts.” The mission is enabling all the different uses cases “that will create the opportunity for success."

Multisensory, extended reality will be a “key” use case, as will the ability to personalize the experience of users of the network, Young said. He also listed advanced robotics, digital twins, the immersive IoT, smart factories, smart transportation and connected vehicles and low-power wide-area networks.

5G is used “very effectively” to provide fixed wireless access in the U.S., “but the 5G network was not designed with that in mind,” Young said.