Defining 6G Networks - Preparing for next-generation networks

0:01 [Music]

0:31 straight into our final session this year which looks ahead to the arrival of

0:37 6G preparing for next generation networks emphasis on preparing there now

0:43 I mentioned at the start of the day that so much of what we've been discussing this year it's going to be table stakes

0:49 in a way for 6G there's a lot of non-negotiable musthaves we already mentioned cloud native AI native green

0:55 and so on so given all this what should DSPs and their partners be doing today

1:01 to ensure a frictionless transition or as frictionless as possible for their

1:07 networks and processes as we evolve from 5G and 5G advanced to early 6G

1:14 deployments so let us first of all meet our panelists who are going to be chatting to me about this and I'm going

1:21 to ask them to briefly introduce themselves starting on my far left with Neil hi I'm Neil McCrae from Juniper

1:28 Networks thank you Neil anita Anita Doular um CEO of the NGM Alliance uh

1:34 Jeff Hollingworth of Rakatan Symphony harold Har University of Cambridge and

1:40 I'm representing the Federated Telecoms Harps in the UK great thanks so much everyone for joining us on this last

1:46 session of this year's World Forum uh first point mobile operators are already

1:53 heavily focused on monetizing their 5G investments so how should they

2:00 prioritize these investments and the 5G advanced investments that no doubt they're going to be making um to remain

2:07 upgrade ready for when 6G enters commercial service likely at some point

2:14 from 2030 onwards because you know we're trying to make a a seamless transition here um Jeff can I can I start with with

2:21 you perhaps as to how you see the the best way forward

2:28 i I think I I think our communications director is still here James Dartnull

2:33 and he uh he he made a mistake earlier by telling me that whenever I start a

2:38 conversation by saying "Let me use an analogy he uh he completely freaks out."

2:45 So so I took away the fact that I'm going to use that phrase a lot more often from this point onwards uh rather

2:52 than speaking about building mobile networks and monetizing

2:58 them let's shift the paradigm and and let's imagine that we're building a

3:04 railway network instead similar kind of industry similar lead times sim similar

3:09 complexities i and the one thing that I think is a

3:15 bit strange in how we behave is is if we were building a railway network with a

3:21 mobile network mindset we'd assume all transportation had to be delivered by

3:27 trains we don't accept so it'd be a bit like uh we we wouldn't accept that you need

3:33 taxes to be at the railway station and there's a seamless handover we'd just put a train at your home and and

3:39 everywhere else so I think there's a reset of of how to actually use the different

3:48 technologies in in a multi-et world to the best advantage uh and then from

3:55 there monetization comes from delivering an experience to customers that

4:00 seamlessly gets them from trains to taxes to bicycles to walking and back

4:05 again in the best way and the winners will survive that so I'm a bit confused why we we're so obsessed in believing

4:11 that we've just got one network when we look at our customers so I I suggest

4:16 that paradigm shift and then we can move backwards uh well I think that's a good analogy as a good I think there's nothing wrong with an analogy like that

4:22 it really it's it's really it's really helpful and I'm sure we were promised seamless handover for IMT 2020 i'm sure

4:29 that was on the original spec sheet harold um your your thoughts on how we should proceed yeah I think it's a it's

4:34 a very good question i mean we we heard a lot about the convergence of compute

4:39 and communications uh in 5G and this this conference but there's another

4:44 element that's coming in 6G is sensing so we will really see convergence of sensing data uh data data um compute and

4:54 communications um and we talked about of AI but I think we need to think a bit deeper what AI

5:00 actually means and AI really only thrives on on data sets and perhaps the

5:06 question is what's the bias in that data set do we need to standardize data set

5:12 do we need to make sure that the the data sets that are coming out of current networks are are normalized in a certain

5:18 way and and uh and how do we how do we leverage sort of what exists now in 5G

5:25 and this is probably a way we can prepare for 6G uh in normalized data sets and also thinking about ways we can

5:32 bring in sensing into networks thanks very much uh as you pointed out this morning sensing was uh certain oh Isac

5:38 is certainly like a a big early um area of interest so far neil going to bring

5:44 you in next um you know initial ways forward here about the fact

5:50 that we are looking at monetizing our 5G now uh and we suddenly got to think about how we transition so I mean I

5:56 would be encouraging every operator on the planet to get involved with the standards that are going on right now

6:01 because there are some very bad decisions being made in my view that are prescribing the answer

6:08 when we don't even know what the question is and that happened in 5G so in 5G we said hey we're going to

6:15 virtualize it all with with uh network functions virtualization

6:20 that was an awesome success and then we pivoted to cloud native halfway through

6:26 and everyone's saying why is 5G taking so long well because we can't get the infrastructure to work um you know we

6:33 got through that in the end but it was painful um and you know I'm nervous that

6:39 we're focused on there's an overfocus on things that customers won't find valuable like infrastructure they don't

6:45 care about it we've we've I think that's been a theme throughout the whole two days and there's not enough focus on the

6:51 critical capabilities that will drive what Jeff just rightly said about

6:57 actually how do we produce something of value that works wherever you need to for it to work be it here in a railway

7:04 in a car park anywhere you are there should be there should be a connection to the network and I personally believe

7:12 I strongly believe that 6G should be about solving the coverage conundrum

7:18 there should be nowhere in the world that you cannot get 6G coverage and and

7:24 and if we fail to do that then we'll be on a a stage like this in four years or

7:30 5 years time asking well why didn't we monetize anything um why is that

7:36 important well if you know that the network's there all the time then suddenly all of a sudden applications

7:42 that weren't viable before become more interesting we talk about developers developers take these ideas and think

7:48 well wait a minute I now know I've got connectivity anywhere what can I do with that um and I genuinely think that is

7:55 the way uh to solve a lot of our challenges and go beyond you know we

8:02 these things are connected so well now we don't need to do anymore with these things they're done we've done a great job amazing job what we need to do is as

8:10 as the professor said is how do we get sensors how do we get you know devices

8:16 that aren't carried around with us connected so that we can visualize and and understand yagago said earlier about

8:22 the the glasses i'm probably a bit skeptical about that idea but other types of sensors that could be shared or

8:29 or or or leveraged but they only work they're only valuable if they work everywhere so that's that's my challenge

8:36 but really please for the love of God get involved in the standards now because it's a scary place in my view

8:44 yeah now is the absolute right time get involved if you're not already involved really really should be and and Nita um

8:49 we spoke this morning i showed some highlights of that research we did of the uh of the 3GPP workshop submissions

8:56 and some of the key points operators were saying um and I think one of those ties in with um uh some output you did

9:04 today just released today I think for for 3GPP's next plenary um about network

9:09 simplification is that right exactly so um just today um we the German Alliance

9:17 uh released another operator position which we use um as input to 3GPP so our

9:23 members will also um yeah um present this uh input and it is mainly a recap

9:30 of what we released already as operator positions in NGMN but um complemented

9:37 with clarifications with regards to some feedback we received in the previous

9:42 statements um so mainly it is um and thanks Neil for emphasizing that

9:47 operators need to be engaged in standardization i completely uh echo that um and that's of course also the

9:54 role of NGMN to consolidate the opinions but uh mainly it is about um how can we

10:01 achieve econom economic viable um solutions and network evolution which

10:08 is meeting user demand and um for this we need to learn from 5G so um the vast

10:18 majority of operators are absolutely not in a rush to go into into 6G

10:23 standardization because we still need to learn from 5G and um the the main

10:30 intention is also to focus where possible so that's that's I need to emphasize where possible on software

10:38 upgrades so of course there are areas if we for instance go for new spectrum um

10:43 where hardware upgrades are needed it's not possible to do it by software only

10:49 but the the intention is to make reuse of the flexible architecture we have

10:54 right now to go for modeler open architecture and in the migration to

11:00 support um voice or native voice from lay one and in a migration to avoid

11:07 different architecture options so that's one of the main learnings also from the 5G rollouts

11:14 thanks Anita and um I I pointed out this morning that a number of um operator

11:20 submissions highlighted missteps with the 5G process or with hindsight

11:25 shouldn't have done that um non-standalone mode was one of them over complexes there was quite a few of them

11:31 and and they were they were there front and center to which I say well whose fault is that you know it was your fault

11:37 uh because you're part of the process or you weren't part of the process then so get involved now if you don't want missteps moving forward but I want to

11:43 bring it back to three sessions we had this week on the the the markets um we

11:50 heard from the automotive market basically said they said a lot of things great things but 5G not yet delivering

11:57 for their needs fintech 5G quite irrelevant um at this

12:04 stage logistics today you know f we 5G why did we bother so the the there's

12:10 there's the customers are still getting their heads around the value of what we

12:16 what we started 10 years ago so you know I think we cannot lose sight of the

12:22 customers can we it's one hell of a mistake right uh 10 year mistake uh and

12:27 no one really cares uh the

12:33 to echo some of this sentiment that uh uh I think simplification rather than

12:39 complexity and all of the standards predicate on 100% coverage ubiquitous

12:45 coverage but that's not what we have so how do we solve for that there's so much complexity in the the standards that

12:52 we'll never see the light of day in reality because for all of us here right now we we're not connected to a mobile

12:59 network probably we're connected to you know alternative networks Wi-Fi

13:04 Harold I think it's a very interesting discussion but also has a little danger in it uh it is it is the innovation and

13:12 the innovation potential and we must we look at if you look at a in a European context we need to be careful not to be

13:19 overtaken by by the world because you see humanoid robots coming you will see

13:26 the driverless cars if you go to the United States you see them on the road you you see a lot of autonomous systems

13:32 drones that are coming in you need AI at the edge in order to control them in a in a sensible way make sure that they

13:39 are not becoming weapons so secure networks are important trustworthiness is important we need to think about the

13:46 phone neil you said the phone is done i don't think a phone is done in my view we we still have a a two-dimensional

13:51 display people work on threedimensional holographic displays imagine you are immersing in a in a sort of cyber uh

13:58 world the continuum of phys physical and cyber worlds there's a lot of innovation potential out there on the devices on

14:04 the services on on AI in machines that that are coming and helping us in our

14:10 daily works and and we must not forget that there's a lot there that requires real innovation in networks both on

14:16 software side but on hardware as well coming back to the analogy of of train lines you have a train line yeah you can

14:23 run a certain number of carriers but for certain things like holographic displays you may be needing 10 of these trains

14:29 line train lines in parallel and then When it comes to the question about spectrum we need to be more forwardl

14:35 looking yes there's a push back on millimeter wave in 5G but millimeter wave and FR2 are coming are needed

14:42 because with 200 megahertz you don't deliver more than one Gbit per second you need however for the things that

14:48 I've just mentioned 10 Gbit 100 Gbit a terabit and we must not um forget that

14:53 there's that need as well in order to drive our economies in in a world context well we'll we'll come we'll come

15:00 on to innovation topic in just a second but I just want to go back to to to Neil if I can because yesterday you said to

15:06 me I think about ubiquitous connectivity and he said to get that or certainly terrestrial ubiquitous connectivity you

15:13 need ubiquitous energy you need ubiquitous power yeah but and and I think um those are symbiotic so is the

15:22 power is power going to get better without a better network to run the power no um we see that we see that

15:28 endless um endlessly in you know local power outages if you work for a national

15:33 telco you can pretty much determine how good the power distribution is of of the

15:39 country and let me tell you I don't think there's any country doing a great job right now so let's make sure that the power companies deliver the power we

15:46 need because we pay them a hell of a lot of money for it i would suggest um the

15:51 second point to that though is um ensuring that

15:57 it's kind of how do we make sure that we're using the network in a sensible way right so we got um 4K video being

16:04 pushed down to an iPhone and I'm looking at it and and actually I put a 1080p

16:10 picture next to it and I can barely tell the difference right um

16:16 where is the value in some of the things that we choose to do on on these devices and how do we optimize for that can we

16:22 use a control plane that says "Well actually he's on an iPhone right now not his Mac so let's send him something more

16:28 sensible." And then also I 100% agree um on innovation we we have to be careful

16:35 that we don't stifle in innovation but we also need to be super clear that

16:40 there's a way to kind of really make that innovation successful be able to cash the check and be able to make a

16:46 difference and generate demand for the users of that innovation and I think that's where we've struggled with with

16:52 with a lot of 5G you know I remember we when I was at BT we partnered with Ericson to do a a remote surgeon and I

17:00 remember looking at this thing in NWC thinking there's no hell's way I'm getting under a remote surgeon right i

17:06 mean we just weren't listening to to what was out there on the flip side actually I was a bit disappointed by the

17:13 logistics side so I I did some work um with a large well-known parcel delivery

17:19 company and deploying a 5G private network into some of their sites reduced

17:25 human accidents by 24% uh back to Jeff's point about insurance

17:30 and and safety that that was made yesterday that's massive for them there's no and there's no other way they

17:36 could do that so um and then the the panel uh not the pre not the previous

17:41 panel the one before about in 2017 I was at an event where I said unless telos

17:47 get together with industry 5G is going to be all about speed test point right I've got a video of me saying that um

17:54 and and I think how we in and and maybe the 6G actually getting more industry

18:00 directly involved in it would be helpful as well in terms of standards so um yes we'll need more power but I would argue

18:06 that the Telecom's network has and data centers whilst they use a lot of power

18:11 they also help save and and avoid a lot of energy usage in terms of travel in

18:17 terms of computation in terms of many other things out there that if if we didn't have the network and data centers

18:23 our power and energy usage would probably be 10x what it is now great great thanks Neil harold look you you

18:30 you spoke about innovation previously um we need to commercialize we need to

18:36 innovate we you and I had a discussion about uh patents versus patents in a way

18:42 papers versus patents right um so so you know h how how do we ensure that we we we we build this flourishing ecosystem

18:51 of of of research startups academia whatever it might be that is actually

18:57 working towards a goal i think that's a that's a very good question and so I as

19:02 I said earlier I represent the federated telecoms hops in in the UK which is four

19:08 hops on spectrum on network of networks on cloud and also on an experimental

19:13 platform what's called joiner so we we have about 100 researchers and and the

19:18 UK is well known for its excellence in research papers but not so much in in

19:23 terms of uh creating that uh innovation turning patterns out of that innovation

19:28 so that's why we we have we have we're driving what we're changing a culture in a sense that says sort of think patent

19:36 first within that consortium of about 100 researchers more so we really capture the value of our research

19:42 engines that we have in the UK to then uh see how we can take that forward we

19:49 have as well in parallel you mentioned standardization we we are engaging as a

19:55 research community in standardization we are contributing to papers in in of 3GPP

20:01 in Prague next week for example there's innovation around various technologies we are trying to put into the standards

20:08 together with industry so not as a researcher but we we partner with industry make sure that the UK

20:14 innovation feeds into standardization and then hopefully we also uh have with

20:19 a with a the test platform joiner we have we have first six trials we run

20:25 very quickly in order to demystify some hype technologies so that we learn

20:30 earlier if a certain technology works or not so if had we had that in in 5G with millimeter wave you would have learned

20:37 quite maybe earlier what the the what the pitfalls are and then move on faster so really that idea of innovation

20:44 pattern creation putting patterns into prototypes minimum viable products test them with end users and learn and fail

20:51 fast and be be bold and say "Okay it doesn't work good fair enough we have learned." So we need to adopt a faster

20:58 innovation approach within the UK leveraging on the strong uh scientific base we have and that's that's what we

21:04 do with the federated telecoms hubs and that's some of the the missions we are we are following through at the moment

21:10 jeff do you want to come in at this point i I I think aligned I think it's

21:15 interesting the innovation angle and the network angle because I don't disagree

21:20 with that at all now the world is innovating faster than it ever has i think the question we have to ask is how

21:26 much does that what does that require in the standards process in a network

21:34 uh what is it really that's the most simple take uh that will generate the

21:41 outcomes we have for innovation but we're not trying to put a vertical stack kind of thinking into a layer at the

21:48 bottom because from a software point of view everyone works with networks in a

21:53 certain way and it's latency bandwidth jitter so what's the the promises that's

21:58 common by the way across all networks so there's something nice from an app developer point of view because I can

22:05 then work across seamlessly across all of those networks if I need to for whatever I'm doing but I'm I'm not

22:13 I guess the question is what should really exist in a 6G standard and what

22:19 should exist around a 6G standard in the industries that are going to use it right and and and how far I just like to

22:26 just point because I know we're going to come get some more comments here but how far ahead is it possible to say how far ahead are you doing that very early

22:34 stage research because we might probably be thinking great you're doing this research and we expect it to be part of the the thinking in the next three or

22:40 four years and commercialized in 2030 whereas it it probably won't be so we we we we have a a multi-tered approach so

22:47 some of the innovations we are pondering now are softwarebased so how can we bring in innovation software shortterm

22:53 but we also thinking long term we're thinking about sub terahertz for example how can we channel model in in sort of

23:00 into into the FR2 bands and so on so we have a medium short and long-term view in in our research that's that's that's

23:06 the beauty of uh of academic research we can sure be independent on that sure absolutely thanks very much nita you

23:13 wanted to come in yeah it's an important topic Harold also mentioned that the eos I think the ecosystem needs needs to

23:18 work together from very early stages ages um by in developing um innovation

23:24 um in 5G i mean we all know that there is a vast majority of features standardized which are never used um and

23:31 this is something and we also emphasized this in the publication we did today as input to 3GPP this is something we

23:38 should avoid as an industry um back to to uh Neil's point um so I I get your

23:45 point about um the uh remote surgery use cases but I would like to see us in 20

23:51 years from now how we speak about this because I really believe that there will

23:56 be innovation and innovation uh develops much faster than we sometimes can imagine and it also depends we are a

24:03 global industry depends really on the needs of a user um and of course it's

24:09 about economic viable solutions but I guess that uh it's some big difference if someone um assesses this from a

24:16 standpoint of living in um near proximity to hospitals and so on and so

24:23 forth compared to someone who is uh based in much more rural rural areas and

24:29 simply has no other choice so I I personally I see so I'm not speaking now um on behalf of NGM but as Anita I

24:37 personally see a lot of uh potential on a global scale that we can improve the

24:43 lives of of of many people yeah but that's just as a side note thanks yeah I

24:48 mean I don't think you get any argument from that but I think we have to be sensible about it i mean you know this

24:53 robot had a laser and there was some guy in another part of MWC controlling it

24:59 and it was just obvious that no one was ever going to go near it but the focus that generated was nuts and and and look

25:06 part of the reason for doing it was to make people dream right we want people to dream we want them to dream big my

25:12 mother's just had a stroke she's just out of hospital a couple of days and actually the the solutions to looking

25:17 after her in the home are 20 years old um now some of them work really well

25:23 there's a button you press and you know help comes but there's other things that we could do but at the moment most of

25:31 that's focused on the hospital or the care side as opposed to the patient side

25:36 so anything we want to do on that space and I'm very passionate about this having tried to do it many times whilst I was at BT to improve health care uh

25:45 has to be about the patient having visible signs of the improvement on on the on the in on the innovation side

25:51 though um you know I think Jeff makes a massive point i just look at I remember

25:57 turning on the first modem at Demon Internet in 20 sorry 1992

26:02 uh we had 10 of them racked like that a 64k lease line out the back of it and

26:07 and the innovation that that made the internet where it is today and and I think some people forget this but we

26:13 were literally writing code on live devices because the bandwidth was was

26:19 pushing us so aggressively the demand was pushing us so aggressively we were in real time innovating creating stuff

26:26 and it kind of feels like in some respects we've lost that i see it a little bit in in the AI world where

26:32 we're seeing almost every day there's a pivot to a new architecture or a new you

26:38 know control system or a or a new way of working with with AI i I I've been

26:43 working with AI to do unit testing i've got an an an agentic client 100 lines of

26:49 code that can talk to four different AI infrastructures to do the test in

26:55 different ways and actually they all come back with different results which is great because then I can actually analyze those results and says okay if a

27:01 human does it this way or a human does it that way we get these sort of outcomes so but where I want to where I

27:07 think we need to get back to is you know not it would be nice to have this because we think this might be a a need

27:15 but actually we're seeing a real gap in what the network can do to serve this

27:20 market and and I give a great example what the the Vodafone guys did um during

27:26 the either the I can't remember if it was the Queen's funeral or the King's Coronation but they put up a 5G SAA

27:32 network in London to be able to film it all because they struggled to be able to

27:37 film and and shoot live in London and it showed a real use case with a real demand that the broadcasters and the

27:45 camera crews and all the other media companies were willing to pay for uh and actually it was a relatively simple

27:51 service but actually and it goes to Anita's point it's all about network slicing which very few carriers have

27:57 deployed very few carriers are are thinking is going to actually get anywhere but actually here was a use case that was there so how do we get

28:03 back to that almost here's a here's a really strong need let's write code make

28:09 it happen learn from it and reuse it because I think that part of our of the internet develop development and what

28:15 made the internet so great um we've kind of lost that in this kind of whole

28:22 10ear cycle of creating a standard that we then have to to to jump into i also totally agree with Jess's point on um

28:29 nothing should it shouldn't be that we have to connect to this one kind of cellular standard there's lots of other

28:35 wireless technologies that are out there that are more home for different use cases um short distance long distance um

28:44 yesterday we heard that the fixed wireless access business in Europe wasn't that big it's a 2 and a half

28:49 billion pound business that sounds big to me i would want to be a part of that so how do we build um radios that are

28:57 focused on that rather than using a shared network that that's expensive and doesn't deliver for it so I think

29:03 innovation's crucial for this um but I think unless we are able to connect

29:09 where we need to connect for the purpose we need to connect for that innovation will be much like what we have today

29:17 thanks i don't I don't know what I'll be doing next year i don't think any of us

29:23 do uh this agent stuff

29:28 the uh uh six months ago we weren't speaking about Gentic AI there's

29:35 apparently this Johnny Ives guy that's going to make the iPhone disappear i the

29:42 it's it's it feels like we're out of cycle yeah uh with reality and that's

29:48 what I mean can we accelerate and keep it simple and then take part in reality

29:54 more and then more prescriptively understand what we're missing and then

29:59 add it really quickly if we have to this 10year thing is is nuts doesn't fit into

30:05 the way we live anymore as as a technology first society it doesn't feel like and the only people that think it's

30:12 important there's little community in here everyone everyone else uh they only

30:17 think it's important when it isn't there uh no Jeff not not so little okay not so

30:22 little it's extensive i don't even think this community thinks that's important either that That's the

30:29 crazy thing i don't think any of us Hands up if you think a 10-year cycle is the effective thing today for those on

30:36 the camera no one put their hand up um I mean I think we all know this but what's stopping us from getting on with it it's

30:42 risk aversion it's lack of leadership you know we need a kick up the backside to say "Hey telco guys you used to be

30:48 the pivot of of technology." The report that came out this year Mary this week

30:53 Mary Mary Mika look at there's a there's an insane I mean I I couldn't believe this there's a there's an insane uh

31:00 comparison of the top companies before the internet and after the internet

31:06 right number 10 BT Group right on the

31:11 list they don't even they're not even on the list for today and the and the and

31:16 the the list of top companies I think the only one that's still there is Oracle right um how can that be true

31:24 that our industry has kind of fallen to the bottom of the technology cycle when we used to lead it and drive it and and

31:31 I genuinely believe it's actually down to all of us to go out there and say no we're not going to put up with this

31:36 we're going to kick ass and we're going to do something that makes a difference for people again because we've done a

31:41 great job of making diff 20 years but it's hard maybe the last 5

31:48 years less so much but I think we need to figure out how we get back to that and how we how we start to make a

31:53 difference and I I again I I'm I'm going to repeat what I said making sure people

31:59 are connected all the time or things can be connected all the time is the start of that journey great I'll come to

32:04 Harold in a moment but nita I do want to come to you yeah I think I mean one thing is this 10ear cycle and of course

32:11 we need global standardization uh we u probably we all refer here with the 10year cycles to the 3GPP releases but

32:19 what we are saying is that exactly this should be um um not hinder innovation

32:26 and the flexible architecture we have now with 5G and the um emphasize on

32:33 software um upgrades to innovations through software upgrades and not through necessarily

32:40 mandatory hardware upgrades um the use of cloudnative solution HI solution

32:45 model solution open solution um is exactly enabling the industry to

32:51 innovate um faster and to innovate with a different cadence and that's what the

32:57 majority of operators which are in NGMN for instance and in the board um emphasize and want to achieve so it's

33:04 not that we should wait another 10 years but of course we need to also provide our guidance and input to the 3GPP uh

33:12 releases thanks thank thanks very much um I I I

33:18 want to come to to Harold now because I I I just it it it strikes me that you've

33:24 been sat here and you've been listening to us the industry talk about what we like what we dislike our moans our

33:30 groans our hopes our fears you with you and who you represent and

33:36 your focus on that that innovation those waves of innovation do you feel like

33:42 you're part of this industry do you feel like you're connected to this industry and you have a like a two-way dialogue

33:48 with this industry and its future i I spun out a company Pure LiFi so I'm

33:53 a part of the industry i see as an entrepreneur as well how hard it is to get new technology into this into this

34:00 industry uh and I I absolutely feel part of it but I also feel pain sometimes

34:06 um in in in terms of how it evolved in terms of monetization of the values this industry

34:13 has created i mean imagine imagine a world without communication networks i

34:19 mean there's been talks for example the outage in in Spain communications didn't didn't work it's

34:25 almost as bad as no no power um and and and we we are we are relying on it on yet uh we are talking about dire

34:33 situations while there is a big prospect in in driving um in driving really

34:39 prosperity in society enhancing um um innovation in enhancing productivity in

34:46 prancing enhancing a lot of things that we can better do i think for me what

34:52 came out of the last panel is we we need to connect better with the industry i

34:57 think that the the the 3TP world is still in this mobile internet view speed

35:03 test mobile internet mobile to your phone social networking that's we moved

35:08 on we need to look into the verticals agriculture how do we make sure that we have autonomous systems that plow our

35:15 fields in an intelligent way how do we make sure that we have a tele medicine and and and sort of uh um

35:22 better connectivity in medical applications in in in transport how do we get our trains better connected i

35:28 mean there's a lot of verticals we need to talk and listen perhaps more to the the needs um of of vertical sectors and

35:34 even understand their problem sets that they even sometimes probably don't know what what they don't know in terms of

35:41 what what connectivity can do and and I I I strongly believe we need we need we need to to do that um a bit better

35:48 thanks Harold jeff did you want to say something there i I think Howold's job is the most important one on this panel

35:54 in terms of the there's every single country has the potential to own the future in a completely different way i

36:01 going to happen because of technology leadership and innovation i think the question we have to ask is what's really

36:07 required at each layer of the stack to do that and and we're not we shouldn't

36:13 be waiting uh no one else waits for technology to turn up uh it's amazing

36:19 how much you can work with what you have and then it it it you can make it more efficient and cleaner with standards but

36:26 let's let's find the uh what you call it connection with the the real value and

36:33 and the opportunity one one final point because we are all almost out of time for this year um and

36:41 and look we will cover verticals more next year we had three great vertical sessions this time great feedback uh on

36:48 those so we want to bring more in next year and hear hear from and also academics um so and I know we're out of

36:56 time but I got to say something so I've been working with UK tin which has been set up by DIT and it's amazing the gap

37:01 between what operators are doing what industry is doing that isn't an operator and what the research network is doing

37:08 it's completely broken in most loca most parts of the world and we're trying to fix it so I think I would definitely

37:14 encourage that we that we um have those the industry and the research folks in

37:20 to to kind of work together to solve some of these conundrums great uh and we'll do our bit whatever

37:27 small bit we can do as well um one final comment though it it seems to me like

37:33 changing the direction of of the G's the generational approach is like a super tanker it just takes forever to to to

37:40 make significant change we all talk about the 10-year release cycle it's not really is it it's like 18 months for

37:46 first interim releases but as a generational shift it's like a 10 year cycle and everyone everything goes

37:52 backwards from there into these generations that will still haven't got 4G well yes uh will it will it shift it

38:01 can we break that accepted cadence if you like and and be more agile and more

38:07 responsive to what the market and our customers want from us jeff do you want

38:13 to kick things off i think the I think uh the real fear we have is not uh

38:19 changing it it's the the arrival of irrelevance from it i think increasingly

38:24 already today I don't know how 6G whatever 6G is I don't know how it turns up if we're not rolling out even what we

38:31 have today and the 5G and we're not cleaning up our act if you like so

38:36 normally uh it's not it's not that uh

38:45 I think it'll carry on because I think it's very hard because that's what people do but I don't think we should

38:51 focus on believing the answer is going to come out of a a G unicorn in this world

38:57 i I would say um if we don't fix this in this cycle we're in real trouble i look

39:03 at Starlink right and and the difference that that one innovation has had over

39:11 the last 5 years is probably one of the biggest changes in connectivity i I've

39:17 just been I was on holiday last week to Cyprus took my little mini dish which fits under the seat in front of you um

39:24 plugged it in and and instead of the 20meg DSL that that's there I've got 250meg

39:30 um broadband access and they are every I

39:35 first tested Starlink in the UK about 3 years ago and it was 80 meg the same

39:41 dish now does 240 and and higher they're just pushing updates out and out and out

39:46 and I and I feel that that for me looks like a signal that says "Hey you're missing out parts of this opportunity

39:53 someone else has come in to grab a hold of it." Um not an easy thing to do is build a satellite network but it's been

39:59 done and I can't help but feel that if we don't pick up the pace and drive more

40:06 there's folks out there looking to say actually we'll have some of that because that because customers

40:12 want a better service want better connectivity and actually want it a better price too thanks Neil harold I I

40:20 think um the G's are I guess over at some point i think in in some the reason

40:27 is again the verticals in some in some areas we need faster innovations on a on a yearly basis in some cases we need

40:34 longer I mean non-aterrestrial networks and others and and we we just need to make sure that we innovate regularly and

40:42 and for people rather than for technology and it's one of the comments I I have as well everybody talks about

40:48 AI a little bit of a buzz word but what for what do you mean by AI I mean we all

40:54 know Chachi PT but that's not what we talk about we talk about okay you use AI to make networks autonomous that's for

41:01 the operators saving money is good but what do how do people benefit we need to have that people view more ingrained in

41:08 into our thinking rather than talking about technology but and I' I've seen that in in in in 3G with CDMMA everybody

41:16 talked about CDMMA then a millimeter wave in in in 5G now AI but it's a

41:22 technology we don't really know what how do we best use that for citizens And that's that's that's the homework

41:28 right we will reconvene next year and uh just just uh see how far we've got and we'll take all these points on board and

41:35 we'll try and get a little bit more integration um and and see what we can see what we can achieve next year but for this year um we are out of time it's

41:42 a great way to end this year's DSP Leaders World Forum i'm going to ask our guests to remain seated for a for a moment um because I've got some

41:49 announcements but um before I do let's give them a round of applause please thank our guests

41:59 [Music]