Thank you, Madam Chair.

I would like to thank the Secretary-General for his kind invitation to address this Forum.  The Wireless World Research Forum is grateful for this opportunity to provide our comments on his report.

Our Forum is a global member-based organization: industry, academia and regulators, dedicated to mapping out the research roadmap towards the next generation of mobile communications. To do this, we need to carefully analyse current mobile systems, and the degree to which they meet the current and future needs of users, in particular those in the developing markets that will play an important role in our industry in the future.

WWRF has been extensively engaged with ITU in the evaluation of IMT-2020 systems, and has also been analysing the future technology trends that will enable future systems. In 2022, through the WWRF Huddle and other events and workshops, we will be working closely with our colleagues across the ITU sectors to develop a clear vision of what next-generation systems will be able to achieve.

For Global Inclusion to be achieved, cost efficiency is required. Some of the functionality required in more developed countries may be expensive and not required in the initial stages of deployment in developing countries. Many developing countries are not currently thinking about the next generation, so it is essential that the technologies selected can be upgraded by software to Connect the Unconnected and are affordable by countries migrating from 4G to beyond IMT-2020, either directly or via IMT-2020.

One important area that needs policy attention is that air interface and network specifications need to support enhanced security in devices. A combination of air interface and networked infrastructure with built-in security functionalities will achieve the strongest protection possible, and thereby increase user confidence and trust. Future IMT systems will need to provide robust and secure solutions to address the threats to security and privacy brought by new radio technologies, new services and new deployment cases.

In 2030 and beyond, sensing and advanced AI will enable a much fuller context awareness, as we said in the theme of our recent 46^th Meeting, moving from “connecting things” to “connected intelligence”. In its turn, context awareness can drive the Quality of Security experienced by users and enable the adaptation of security controls. These are especially pertinent for constrained wireless systems, such as the Internet of things, with massive connectivity, and those systems where ultra-low latencies are required.

We are encouraged to see an increasing cooperation and integration between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, leading to a more integrated approach to providing global and affordable coverage in a sustainable way.

Telecommunications policy needs to adapt and grow to help meet these new societal challenges, and WWRF is committed to working with ITU to achieve this, and invites all to join us in these efforts.