PARTNER CONTENT: On October 26, the 11th GTI Spectrum and Technology workshop was successfully held at Beijing in China and Bangkok in Thailand, with the theme “Focus on TDD Gold Four-Band Development Strategy”. International organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), operators and industry partners such as China Mobile, Telkomsel Indonesia, Axiata Group Malaysia, SIMBA Singapore, and Telkom South Africa are invited to the Forum. Discussed 5G TDD spectrum requirements and TDD golden four-band development strategies, and shared 5G key technologies and best practices in 5G network construction.

In his opening speech, Zhao Houlin, Secretary-General of the ITU, pointed out that 5G, as a leading technology in the field of next-generation ICT, is a key information infrastructure to support the digital, network, and intelligent transformation of the economy and society. He stressed that spectrum is the key to 5G development. The mid-band spectrum is recognized as the “golden” spectrum of 5G by global operators and should be committed to regional and global coordination to ensure reasonable, fair, efficient, and economical use of spectrum resources.

Lara Dewar, CMO of GSMA, shared 5G TDD spectrum insight and industry ecosystem progress. She pointed out that according to GSMA statistics, the number of global mobile subscribers has reached 5.3 billion by the first half of 2022, and the number of 5G connections will reach 1 billion by the end of 2022. It is predicted that 5G alone is expected to benefit the global economy by more than $960 billion in 2030. In addition, she said, the mid-band spectrum will help us to apply the most advanced 5G technologies, which will also greatly affect the popularization of our digital technologies. She called on every country to promote 2 GHz mid-band resources to build 5G networks to further exploit the economic value of 5G.

Huang Yuhong, General Manager of China Mobile Research Institute, delivered a keynote speech on TDD spectrum development and evolution. She pointed out that the successful development of TDD network is due to continuous technological innovation based on TDD flexible frame structure, continuous large bandwidth, and uplink and downlink heterogeneity. During the development of TDD, China Mobile has also continuously overcome challenges in TDD technologies, including atmospheric ducts and network coordination, and has made a historic leap from immature to mature, and from niche to mainstream in TDD technologies and industries. Currently, TDD has become the mainstream 5G technology, and 70% of 5G networks are deployed in TDD medium frequency bands. At the same time, she pointed out that 2.3 GHz is the golden frequency band for the second wave of 5G construction. 73 operators in 49 countries or regions have released 2.3 GHz spectrum, among which 12 operators have deployed 2.3 GHz NR networks. Finally, she called on the industry chain to further support new TDD frequency bands and promote more and in-depth industry cooperation in the end-to-end ecosystem of new spectrums in the entire mobile industry.

In addition, GTI presented GTI awards to leading operators who have made outstanding contributions to the development of the 2.3 GHz industry. Telkomsel and SIMBA won the 2.3 GHz Industry Market Development Awards. Axiata Group and South Africa Telkom won the Industry Thought Leader Award.

The conference provides reference for spectrum planning, technology evolution, and network deployment for countries to promote 5G development. It calls on the global industry to further strengthen cooperation, jointly promote unified spectrum division and efficient use, and promote 5G innovation and sustainable development.