Five of the most enthusiastic countries supporting 6G have established a global coalition to invest in future technology research. The Global Coalition on Telecommunications (GCOT) will group Australia, Canada, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States as an initiative to evolve future telecom technologies.
According to the coalition’s statement of intent, the participants will focus on topics such as 6G, telecommunications supply chain diversification, security, and resilience. They are set to exchange information on policy approaches, align funding priorities, and support standards development, among other activities.
The countries – through each’s respective development agency – will seek four main goals:
- Increase cooperation and coordination between partners on telecommunications, including by improving information sharing to ensure complementary national approaches.
- Build broader international consensus on key areas of telecommunications policy in support of the group’s shared objectives.
- Enable dialogue between policymakers, industry, and academia.
- Promote innovation and growth opportunities for the industry.
GCOT’s members are set to meet twice a year, with one in-person and one virtual meeting every six months, to discuss cooperation on specific topics of shared interest. See the full joint statement here.
Eyes on the Prize
Along with the launch of the coalition, the UK announced £70 million ($85 million) for research under the initiative. “This investment in new telecom research will help the UK become a leader in 6G and beyond,” the UK government said in a statement.
“This includes new technologies to better connect space-based and terrestrial networks, step-changes in capacity and speeds in data transfer and improving the energy efficiency of our networks through cloudification.”
The figure adds to other UK investments in 6G research recently announced.
“The critical telecommunications issues of today are global in scope,” observed Alan Davidson, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and NTIA Administrator, in a public statement.
“This groundbreaking coalition will help the US and our partners respond decisively to cross-border opportunities and challenges. By working ever more closely together, the Coalition members will advance secure, diverse, resilient, and innovative telecommunications networks around the world.”
Journalist since eight years old, when I would read the newspaper out loud and pretend it was a radio show. Based in São Paulo, I have worked for Brazilian websites as reporter and editor before joining 6GWorld
