Major Nations Taking Different Approaches to Spur 6G: FCC Advisory Council
Countries around the world are approaching the move to 6G from different perspectives and often with differing focuses, said a recently posted report by the FCC’s Technological Advisory Council. The TAC approved the 6G report and two others from its working groups earlier this month but didn’t make them available at the time (see 2508050062).
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The TAC has long been viewed as among the most important of the FCC advisory groups. The recent meeting was its first since last year, and the questions considered had been posed under the Biden administration. FCC Chairman Brendan Carr has announced that the agency is rechartering the TAC, with work to start early next year.
The U.S. is attempting to lead the world on 6G “through public-private partnerships, federal funding, and spectrum allocation, while China adopts a top-down strategy integrating government, academia, and industry to drive innovation,” the 6G report said. The EU “focuses on energy-efficient networks and reducing reliance on non-EU suppliers, supported by programs like Horizon Europe.” The Middle East and North Africa region is "aligning 6G development with national visions, emphasizing AI-driven networks, sustainability and digital inclusion.”
Stand-alone 5G networks are critical to technology moving forward, the TAC found. They “are essential for enabling advanced features and the upcoming 5G-Advanced evolution,” the report said. They also offer “greater customization, security, and flexibility, critical for sectors requiring reliable, low-latency connectivity.”
North America leads the world in “5G adoption and network performance” with more than 182 million connections “and advanced deployments across low-, mid-, and high-band spectrum,” the report noted. Fixed wireless access “is gaining traction” as an alternative to other forms of broadband, “especially in underserved areas, while enterprise use cases in logistics, healthcare, and manufacturing are emerging, though adoption remains gradual due to integration challenges.” But the availability of appropriate spectrum remains a question mark in the U.S., the report added.
“Diverse expectations and ongoing skepticism about the difficulties and expenses of deploying 5G have cast doubt on 6G’s future. Such perceptions risk causing 6G to be overlooked, rather than embraced as the next major catalyst for technological innovation.”
A report by the TAC’s AI and machine learning (ML) working group said both technologies operating together will mean “a fundamental shift in how networks are designed, deployed and managed.” The Trump administration has focused on spurring the growth of AI, with a limited role for the FCC (see 2507230050). The AI/ML report also noted the risks to networks.
The deployment of AI as part of critical infrastructure “introduces questions around transparency, reliability, and risk management,” the report said. “Ensuring that AI technologies are developed and applied responsibly -- especially in systems that affect millions of users -- requires thoughtful design, robust engineering practices, and collaboration across technology, business, and research domains.” The FCC “should encourage the creation and promotion of clear, robust standards that ensure seamless interoperability across diverse network architectures while integrating advanced AI and ML.”
A report by the advanced spectrum sharing working group said that with the increased demand placed on spectrum by various users, “it is obvious that sharing mechanisms must evolve.” The TAC recommended that for any band, the government start by launching a multi-stakeholder group to develop consensus on “key technical requirements for all users.”
The report also looked at how sharing technologies are changing. “Propagation models are continuing to improve, driven by the ability to better tailor them to real-world propagation effects, localized conditions, and measured observations of propagation data,” it said. While the use of sensing “has been limited in its viability due to sensitivity, cost, and accuracy,” it’s also improving. That makes sensing “increasingly viable as a method for identifying in-band and out-of-band RF emissions, helping to maintain awareness of nearby devices, and helping to detect and mitigate interference rapidly, autonomously, and cheaply.”
The report also suggested building digital twins (see 2210190017), in which all aspects of spectrum use can be tested before being deployed in the physical world.