The kind of “digital cooperation” facilitated by the ITU is “needed now more than ever before,” new ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin’s told Mobile World Congress in Barcelona Monday. “I strongly believe that we can’t separate people from technology,” she said. Bogdan-Martin said it remains unclear whether the world will meet the U.N.’s 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) (see 1702280042): Under the worst-case scenario, “we fail to rescue the SDGs, development is stalled, or it’s going backwards, the climate crisis has overwhelmed us, and mistrust is rampant in terms of technology. Gender equality is a distant dream, and more and more people actually question the very value of connectivity.” What can we do to challenge the status quo? she asked. Finite resources like spectrum and associated satellite orbits “are the building blocks of our advanced global communications system, for all humanity,” she said. They need to be shared “equitably, responsibly, while avoiding harmful interference.” The world needs to “speak the same language” and “reach consensus on global technology standards,” she said. The ITU vision for 6G for 2030 and beyond will be completed later this year and will make energy efficiency and environmental sustainability part of the technical specifications for the first time, she said. She also supports more partnerships to bring down the cost of connectivity. Bogdan-Martin urged the wireless industry to unite behind the SDGs “because failure is not an option.” She said when she spoke with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres a few weeks ago “he stressed the importance of digital technologies and how ITU can be a pioneer.” There “are risks, and those risks are growing, but I ask, what are the risks if we do nothing?” Bogdan-Martin asked.

With 6G standards likely to start rolling out around 2025, now is the time for international collaboration on what the technology will look like and what its use cases will be, speakers said at a Tuesday Centre for European Policy Studies webinar on Japan-EU cooperation in 5G/6G and future connectivity. The EU and Japan signed a digital partnership in May and are discussing what they want to accomplish in technological terms in 2024, said Bernard Barani, European Commission DG Connect deputy head future connectivity systems unit. 6G is expected to arrive in the 2030s, said University of Tokyo professor Akihiro Nakao, who chairs Japan's International Committee of Beyond5G Promotion Consortium: In 2025, 3rd Generation Partnership Project standards will begin to embody what 6G will be in the real world. Asked how the two regions will put flesh on the bones of their partnership, Barani said the idea was to exchange views on future systems via structured dialogues, regular meetings at the ITU and as part of the EC's 2024 work program. Nakao said there's a need for industry and government funding and creating an EU-Japan flagship project to spur investment.The EU's 6G Hexa-X flagship program has already defined 23 use cases clustered into five families, Barani said: Robots and cobots; telepresence; massive twinning of the physical and digital worlds; local trust zones; and sustainable development. Japan set out seven directions for technologies it wants to achieve in the 2030s, said Nakao. It first wants to extend 5G capacities to ultra-fast and large capacities, ultra-low latency and ultra-numerous connections, and then add four value-added features for 6G: Ultra-low-power consumption; ultra-security and resilience; autonomy among devices without manual intervention, and scalability via seamless connections over satellites and High-Altitude Platform Stations. Asked whether spectrum for 6G will be an issue, Barani said it will be necessary to move to higher frequency bands for very accurate positioning and sensing. Those bands also provide a huge capacity, which will be needed for digital twinning. International coordination on how to use the high-frequency bands is important, Nakao said. Asked about the security of open radio access from high-risk vendors, he said ORAN is like taking the mobile network to pieces like Lego blocks. Pieces provided by one vendor can easily be replaced by those from another as long as the interfaces are clearly defined. Interoperability testing, however, is a challenge because the network has so many parts. Japan launched a testing center for interoperability security, he said.

A new satellite network will ensure secure communications for EU government bodies, emergency services and EU delegations globally after the European Parliament approved the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite constellation. Europe's first multi-orbital satellite constellation has a budget of 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion) and will be operational in 2024. It will "ensure the EU's strategic autonomy in the field of secure government communications, in a context where cyber security threats are becoming increasingly important, especially following Russia's war against Ukraine," Parliament said Tuesday. Its negotiations with governments resulted in stronger environmental and sustainability provisions that reduce space debris proliferation and light pollution and require carbon footprint compensation to offset emissions. The agreement now needs final approval from administrations.

Ukrainian and European telcos extended a pact giving refugees connectivity while they live in EU countries. The voluntary agreement allows over 4 million people to access roaming without surcharges and affordable international calls, the European Commission said. Telcos agreed to extend the plan for six months, broaden it to cover calls to fixed line numbers in Ukraine and ensure sustainable inter-operator prices. Seven Ukrainian and 20 European operators signed the joint statement, which is open to all telcos "willing to sign in an expression of solidarity with the people of Ukraine." Separately, European Council President Charles Michel, EC President Ursula von der Leyen and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted in a Feb. 3 statement that the EU "reconfirmed its solidarity with Ukraine in countering hybrid threats and cyberattacks" and "acknowledged the importance of strengthening cooperation in tackling Russian state-controlled information manipulation and interference, including disinformation, as well as building resilience in Ukraine's digital transformation."

The Biden administration shouldn’t block U.S. companies from providing supplies to China’s Huawei by tightening export controls, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation said Tuesday. Various news outlets, citing unnamed sources, report the administration is considering that. The White House didn't comment. “The administration’s ongoing efforts to bolster U.S. technology competitiveness have been commendable, but fully cutting off Huawei from U.S. suppliers would likely have the opposite effect,” said Stephen Ezell, ITIF vice president-global innovation policy. “Huawei technologies are already banned from U.S. telecommunications networks, which undercuts the national security rationale for cutting it off” and “there is a strong economic rationale not to cut off Huawei,” he said. China is a critical market for U.S. technology vendors, accounting for 36% of U.S. semiconductor sales as recently as 2019, Ezell said: “Every dollar a U.S. technology company earns in the Chinese market is one that Chinese competitors don’t earn, so banning exports to Huawei helps Chinese technology suppliers and hurts their U.S. counterparts.”

Nokia expects its mobile business to drive growth this year, CEO Pekka Lundmark said Thursday as the company released Q4 results. Nokia’s mobile business unit had 3% growth over last year, though operating margins declined. “As we look into 2023, even as some developed markets, like North America, mature, other markets, like India, are just starting to ramp up,” Lundmark said during an investor presentation: “We see the addressable markets for mobile networks continuing to grow. With the recent deals won, we believe we are in a strong position to outperform the market.”

UPM Telecom expects to file by mid-February at the FCC a Communications Act Section 208 complaint, summarizing its counterclaims against Digicel Haiti, said a joint status report Tuesday (docket 3:15-cv-00185) at the U.S. District Court for Oregon in Portland. The court stayed UPM's counterclaims for FCC review in October as Digicel’s fraud case against UPM progressed to a jury trial. Central to UPM’s counterclaims for the FCC to determine, say court papers, is whether Digicel, as a foreign telecommunications carrier, offered a common-carrier service to UPM that was subject to provisions of the Communications Act. If so, say the court papers, the FCC needs to determine whether Digicel’s termination of that service due to fraud constitutes an unjust and unreasonable practice and amounts to unreasonable discrimination under the statute. Digicel’s answer to UPM’s complaint will be due 30 days after filing, and UPM’s reply will be due 10 days after that, said the joint status report. An eight-member jury, deliberating for a day after a six-day trial, awarded Digicel $3.6 million in damages in November after finding UPM liable for running a “bypass” scheme that defrauded the Haitian mobile communications network provider and deprived it of the proper termination fees (see 2211220049).

GSMA expects about 80,000 to attend the Mobile World Congress, which starts Feb. 27 in Barcelona, with more than 2,000 exhibitors and sponsors, officials said Thursday during a virtual news conference. That’s up from about 61,000 last year. Top officials with U.S. carriers aren't among the keynote speakers posted by GSMA.

China Telecom Americas urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit not to unseal parts of a decision last year by the court upholding the FCC's revocation of the company’s domestic and international authorities (see 2111150025). “Certain specific portions of the Opinion would harm China Telecom Americas if made public and should remain under seal,” said a filing Friday in docket 21-1233. “If now unsealed, the Opinion would reveal confidential and sensitive information that would cause China Telecom Americas significant harm to its business interests, and would not serve the public interest,” the company said. The U.S. government disagreed. “The Government sees no compelling reason why the Court’s opinion in this case should not be unsealed,” the U.S. said, also Friday. “While some of the statements at issue derive in part from information that China Telecom requested to keep confidential in its FCC filings, and that the FCC then treated as confidential at the company’s request, the Government at this time sees no compelling reason why any of the statements identified by China Telecom need to be redacted from the Court’s opinion,” the government said.

There's still little transparency on “the amount, type, location, and share of 4G and 5G Chinese equipment in European networks,” and only 11 of 31 European countries don’t rely on Chinese gear, Strand Consult said in a new report. Germany, Italy, Poland and Austria have 50% of European mobile customers and are “heavily dependent on Chinese equipment, creating risk for their own nations and others which use their networks,” Strand said: “In 2020, 57% of Germany’s 4G RAN came from Chinese vendors. In 2022, 59% of the 5G RAN in Germany comes from Chinese vendors. Huawei enjoys a higher market share in Berlin than in Beijing.”