Standards body 3GPP and Apple revealed separate plans for 6G, with the former announcing it would start developing a range of industry specifications and the latter reportedly advertising a job for the design of a reference architecture.

The 3GPP organisational partners ARIB, ATIS, CCSA, ETSI, TSDSI, TTA and TTC stated the body would begin planning for 6G specifications because such work takes several years to come to fruition.

In a statement, the standards body noted work is underway for Release-18 and it will soon begin development of Release-19 specifications, but noted these related to 5G Advanced rather than the next generation.

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The group aims to provide the industry with a roadmap for developing products and services ahead of 6G availability around 2030.

Apple
Bloomberg meanwhile reported Apple is seeking a mobile “platform architect” to “drive and coordinate the design and modelling of a 6G reference architecture”.

In its advertisement, Apple reportedly detailed a need to develop “reference architecture models” to enable testing of potential technologies in conjunction with other R&D teams in the company.

Bloomberg noted Apple first posted about 6G job openings in 2021.

The iPhone vendor is reportedly developing its own 5G modem in an attempt to move away from Qualcomm, but speculation suggests it is struggling to bring production in house.