Events (all times CET):

Completed Webinars:

• Keynote: Paths Towards 6G

  Mon, May 23rd 2022 10:00 AM CET

  While 6G is still being defined, there are evolutions from 4G and 5G that give us some ideas of the way forward and which carry shocks to the established telecoms environment. Meanwhile other technology and business disruptions are liable to have unexpected impacts. How do industry leaders set a course to manage the many pressures in the short term and compete effectively in the longer?

• Convergence Points the Way Towards 6G

  Mon, May 23rd 2022 11:30 AM CET

  The next ten years will see the realization of many forms of convergence that have been long hinted at: Between telecoms and computing, satellite and terrestrial, the physical and digital worlds, and more. While each of these types of convergence is significant, this session explores what it will mean for the industry and the final shape of 6G as these trends come together.

• The Journey From 5G To 6G: National Programmes, Global Coordination

  Mon, May 23rd 2022 14:00 PM CET

  The global pandemic has highlighted the importance of connectivity to citizens and economies. We are already seeing national and regional visions for 6G tying in with broader plans for digitalization and sometimes competing national priorities. Can 6G be a global standard and still meet the requirements of different national stakeholders?

• 6G - Who Will Set the Agenda?

  Mon, May 23rd 2022 15:30 PM CET

  5G was hailed as a generation for enterprise customers… but three years in it has had little traction with enterprises globally, while there is consumer mistrust of the technology in many countries. Do we need to have the end users shape the technology capabilities of the next generation, and how could we do that in practice?

• Evening Keynote: Cloud and AI

  Mon, May 23rd 2022 17:00 PM CET

  While 6G is only starting up the telecoms industry hype curve, cloud and AI/ML technologies are moving from hype to reality today. How will they impact the evolution of 6G? Join thought leaders who understand the business and technology inside-out to gain some joined-up perspectives on what comes after 5G and how it matters today.

• Winning Ideas? Legitimation and Acceptance

  Tue, May 24th 2022 10:00 AM CET

  How does a complex global industry with an ever-widening set of stakeholders find consensus? How do different ideas win or lose? As we enter a period of dynamic change, with concepts from a variety of stakeholders across cloud, telecoms and other areas, the competition between ideas will be intense, with push-back from entrenched interests. Is there a way to ensure the best solutions reach the market?

• Private 5G/6G Networks as an Ecosystem Game-Changer

  Tue, May 24th 2022 11:00 AM CET

  The adoption of private networks, enabled by cloud-based software, is in early days. However, it already shows new ways for telecoms to integrate with industries and enterprises. It has opened up new forms of business relationship and dynamics within the telecoms environment, relying on different kinds of players. What does this signify for the wider ecosystem and the way services reach end users?

• Why do we Need a Regulation Revolution?

  Tue, May 24th 2022 12:00 PM CET

  The telecoms sector is already facing questions about the nature of competition, cross-sector regulation, spectrum management and more. As the industry faces its own transformation, will existing regulatory structures and concepts support, accelerate or hinder even the outcomes that policymakers themselves demand?

• Profiting from Innovations in 6G as a General Purpose Technology

  Tue, May 24th 2022 14:00 PM CET

  There is scope for 6G to act as the basis for fresh industrial and social revolutions, supporting an integrated physical and digital environment, metaverses and more. While the underlying technology lies firmly in the telecoms domain, these players have struggled to monetise the benefits the last few generations of mobile technology have brought. How can telecoms providers change this pattern and profit from the innovations of a new generation?

• Debate: Sustainable Networks are More than Just Energy Efficient

  Tue, May 24th 2022 15:00 PM CET

  In many countries, telecoms networks account for 3 to 5% of total energy usage, and with expected growth in cellular coverage, density and capacity only drastic changes in energy efficiency will prevent digital infrastructure being a leading carbon emitter. While a business case for reducing energy costs has supported a focus on energy efficiency so far, this is very different from suggesting that the networks are sustainable or even carbon-neutral. Should the industry continue to focus its priorities on energy efficiency? If not, how does it find a balance (and financial justification) between energy efficiency and a broader sustainability?

• The Problem of Universal Access: Who Needs to Act?

  Tue, May 24th 2022 16:00 PM CET

  A variety of national and regional programmes have outlined requirements for 6G to provide broadband access to everyone, as a part of their drives towards digital societies and inclusion. Supporting this requirement is not necessarily a ‘technology issue’, and certainly not entirely. It has policy and business components as well. So how do we deliver on these requirements in a way that makes sense both for business and society?

• 6G’s Coming – Is a New Network Architecture?

  Wed, May 25th 2022 10:00 AM CET

  While the radio network can often be the focus of much attention, there are slow, powerful changes going on today throughout the network. Fundamental shifts in approaches such as decentralisation, cloud-native networks, automation and more are impacting 5G deployments, but have the capacity to change how the next generations are architected. This session shares expert views on what that architecture might look like.

• How Far Can Hardware Technologies Stretch and Scale on the Way to 6G?

  Wed, May 25th 2022 11:30 AM CET

  The evolution of telecoms technology has tended to ‘more’ – more performance, more computing power, more antennas, more complexity. Are we reaching a point where the hardware evolution the industry has worked with can no longer sensibly keep up? If so, what are the alternatives? Do we have technologies that can take us forward? Join us to find out in this hard-hitting session.

• See What I Mean? Integrating Sensing, Communications and Semantics

  Wed, May 25th 2022 13:30 PM CET

  Higher frequencies offer the opportunity for signal reflections to accurately depict the world around a sensor, allowing devices to sense their environment as well as transmit and receive data. However, higher data rates, plus sensory data, mean that processing instead becomes the bottleneck. How can we solve this? Potentially by using a different form of data transmission – semantic communication. This session brings you an exploration of how these phenomena work together to enable remarkable new capabilities.

• Waveform Candidates For 6G

  Wed, May 25th 2022 14:45 PM CET

  One of the arguments radio purists have made against 5G being ‘not really a new G’ is that for the first time there was no new waveform; 5G and 4G both use OFDM. While OFDM is undoubtedly going to remain in use, this session explores other technologies that could, and arguably should, be used alongside OFDM as we move beyond 5G.

• Advanced Non-Terrestrial Networks for beyond 5G

  Wed, May 25th 2022 16:00 PM CET

  Non-terrestrial networks will be an essential and integral part of communications infrastructures as we progress from 5G towards 6G, to provide coverage everywhere and increase the utility, availability and resilience of services. Along with their indispensable benefits they also bring unique challenges that require unique solutions, especially with some of the more technically demanding services being brought to market. This session discusses the challenges and showcases the work being done to overcome them.