Conference

The 8th Asia-Pacific Spectrum Management Conference was held in Bangkok from 26 to 27 April 2022. It was jointly hosted by Forum Global and Thailand Telecom Regulator, supported by International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Asia-Pacific Telecommunity. More than 630 participants from 84 countries joined the conference on site and in virtual. The conference Speakers were telecom regulators from Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, leading operators such as China Mobile and Axiata,  leading telecom vendors like Huawei, and international industrial organizations such as Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA).

The spectrum is the fundamental resources of mobile communication industries development and the core element for 5G and 5G Advanced. A harmonized planning of spectrum roadmap and standards must be well-defined.

“Current data consuming in Cambodia is around 33 GB per user per month. This is far beyond the ITU forecast of global average, which is just 12 GB in year 2022. Data consumption in Cambodia is among the highest in Asia Pacific region and will grow fast continuously. To address the challenges of long-term growth in data consumption and spectrum demands, 6 GHz is one of the best candidate mid band for us”, the Chairman of TRC Cambodia Chenda Thong in his key note speech.

“If we take a global look to see others’ opinion on 6GHz, we found that some countries in our region, for example, China and Japan supported 6GHz or partial of them for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT). Other regions, such as ATU in Africa and CIS countries, have formed positive view on 6GHz for International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT). It is optimistic about 6GHz band to be identified as IMT spectrum. ” Chenda Thong, added.

In order to accomplish Digital Cambodia mission, 5G full-service development is one of the key factor. Apart from 3.5GHz, Cambodia is considering 6GHz as another important band for IMT under ITU-R study. Hence, Chenda suggested the APAC countries consider reserving upper 6GHz band for IMT before year 2023 conference, in order to achieve spectrum and ecosystem harmonization.  “And we’re happy to see that 3GPP as global industrial organization already starts the standards for 6GHz IMT”.

China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) delegate also stated that mid-band is chosen as the primary band for 5G globally. The 6GHz will be the key frequency band for future 5G in term of combined advantages of capacity, coverage and cost, especially beneficial for developing countries. At the same time, 6GHz band will no longer be used for fixed services like microwave in China.

According to GSMA, by 2025-2030 timeframe, the countries require 2 GHz of mid-band spectrum to meet the IMT user experience of 100 Mbit/s downlink and 50 Mbit/s uplink to reach the vision of 5G services, and therefore, 6GHz is a prime candidate.

Huawei Vice President of 5G Product Line, Du Yeqing also highlighted 2000MHz of mid band spectrum per country is required in the following 5 to 10 years, to support the need of higher speed user experience with affordable services in 5G full scenario. The 2.1/2.3/2.6/4.9 GHz bands have mature ecosystem, support 5G primary development. Industry partners are working together to ripen the 6 GHz ecosystem to meet the long-term needs of 5G.

Finally, Regional Director of ITU Asia and the Pacific Dr. Atsuko Okuda gave the closing remarks. Global harmonized spectrum is the key to wireless services which enables technologies and services to improve access, affordability and security as well as to secure the required investment.