Ministry of Science and ICT Collaborates with Major Countries to Identify 6G Candidate Frequencies

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] The government has decided to continue research with major overseas countries regarding the discovery of candidate frequencies for the next-generation network '6G'.

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 26th that the 5th Asia-Pacific Regional WRC (World Radiocommunication Conference) preparatory meeting (APG23-5), held at BEXCO in Busan from the 20th to the 25th, was successfully concluded.

The WRC is a conference hosted by the UN ITU (International Telecommunication Union) that decides on global frequency allocation and important matters in the field of radiocommunications, held every four years. Known as the "Radio Olympics," this year it is scheduled to be held for four weeks in November in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

About 450 participants, including delegations from 38 Asia-Pacific member countries and related officials, attended this APG meeting. South Korea formed a government delegation of about 70 domestic experts (including related ministries) and actively participated in discussions on a total of 23 WRC23 agenda items in the fields of mobile communications, science, satellites, aviation, and maritime.

As the host country of this APG meeting, South Korea promoted bilateral talks with major Asia-Pacific countries and the United States, leading to the derivation of common opinions among Asia-Pacific countries on key WRC23 agenda items, including each country's issues of interest, and proposed research to discover candidate frequencies for next-generation mobile communications (6G).

In particular, Japan and Australia agreed on the necessity of the 6G frequency discovery research proposed by the Korean government, and it was agreed to pursue additional follow-up research to identify more detailed candidate frequency bands at the next APG23-6 meeting.

Additionally, mutual cooperation on WRC agenda items with the United States was reaffirmed, and continuous collaboration on future WRC agenda items, including research on discovering 6G candidate frequency bands, was agreed upon.

Choi Woo-hyuk, Director of the Radio Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Science and ICT, stated, "We led cooperation among Asia-Pacific countries by driving frequency policy coordination with major countries and proactively proposing the need for research to discover 6G candidate frequencies." He added, "As new industries such as Urban Air Mobility (UAM), 6G, wireless charging, and low-earth orbit satellites are expected to emerge, we will make further efforts to secure new frequencies and prevent frequency mixing and interference among services."