6G Global Summit 2023

Amit Nagpal is a Partner at, and one of the co-founders of, Aetha Consulting. Amit has over 20 years of experience on spectrum management issues having started his career with the Radiocommunications Agency (now part of Ofcom) in the UK. Amit advises regulators/government bodies, fixed and mobile operators, broadcasters, financial institutions and industry associations on a wide range of issues including spectrum policy development and spectrum valuation and auction support. Amit’s experience includes leading studies for the European Commission on the introduction of spectrum trading and a harmonised approach to the digital dividend. Amit has undertaken projects for clients in Europe, Middle East and Africa, Asia and North America and is therefore able to bring a global perspective to his work. He recently supported a mobile operator in Colombia with its preparations for the AWS spectrum auction.

Before his appointment as Head of Unit he was managing the office of the Director General of DG CONNECT, Roberto Viola, coordinating the Commission’s digital policy initiatives. The portfolio included Digital Single Market, Broadband Policy, Telecoms, Media and Online Policy, the Copyright Reform as well as the EU ICT Research and Innovation Programme.

Between 2010 and 2014 he had different roles in the Commission’s telecoms policy Directorate. These included Head of Sector “Spectrum Policy”, penholder of main elements of the Commission proposal on the Telecom Single Market and the Roaming regulation, and the implementation of the EU telecom rules in Germany and Austria.

Between 2005 and 2010 he coordinated the EU R&D programme leading to the 4G mobile communications standards.

Before joining the European Commission in 2004 he has occupied several engineering and management positions in industry, academia and start-ups. He holds engineering and doctoral degrees from RWTH Aachen University, Germany.

Ms. Wang Zhiqin is the Vice President of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT). She is the Chair of the Wireless Technical Committee of China Communications Standards Association (CCSA). She has long been dedicated to the in-depth studies on mobile communications technologies and standards, serving as Chair of the IMT-2020 (5G) PG and IMT-2030 (6G) PG.

Abdulah Aljohani (Senior Member, IEEE) received his B.Sc (Eng.) degree (Hons.) in electronics and communication engineering from King Abdulaziz University, in 2006, and M.Sc. (Distinction) and Ph.D. degrees, in wireless communication from University of Southampton, Southampton, U.K., in 2010 and 2016, respectively.

He is currently a Research & Innovation Consultant at Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC), an Associate Professor with the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, King Abdulaziz University, and a research associate at the Center of Excellence in Intelligent Engineering Systems, King Abdulaziz University.

His research interests include spectrum management techniques, 6G, Non-Terrestrial Networks, channel coding, cooperative communications, space-time coding, free-space optical communication, and MIMO systems. He has published over 30 articles and has granted 13 U.S. patents. He has won more than 10 research grants and multiple innovation and best paper awards.

Bio Coming Shortly

Dr Mike Short CBE , after 30 years in telecommunications with Telefonica, joined the Department for International Trade as the department’s first chief scientific adviser in December 2017.

Mike leads the science and engineering profession in the department and ensures its policy is informed by the best science, engineering and technical advice. He advises on the technical aspects of future trade deals as DIT looks to create new arrangements following Brexit, and works with the UK’s research, development and academic communities to boost scientific and engineering exports.

Mike has over 40 years’ experience in electronics and telecommunications and served as vice president of Telefonica, the parent company of the O2 mobile phone network, for 17 years to December 2016. In this post, he managed the launch of 2G (GSM) and 3G mobile technologies in the UK, and led research and development for Telefonica Europe. His career also includes the promotion of international technical standards in mobile technology, and he is also a former Chairman of the Global GSM Association, the UK Mobile Data Association, and president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

He is currently a visiting professor at the universities of Surrey, Coventry, Leeds, Lancaster and Salford, where in recent years he has led the development on collaborations in areas such as smart cities, digital healthcare, cybersecurity and driverless vehicles.

He was honoured with a CBE in 2012 for his services to the mobile industry.

YOUNG-JO KO received the B. S., M. S. and Ph. D. degrees in physics from
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon,
Korea, in 1992, 1994, and 1998, respectively. He joined Electronics and
Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) in March, 1998. Since 2002, he
has been working on mobile communications at ETRI. From 2005 to 2014, he
participated in the development of early versions of LTE/LTE-Advanced
systems and also participated in the 3GPP standardization of LTE/LTE-
Advanced as a main delegate of ETRI. He is currently Director of 6G Wireless
Technology Research Section in Mobile Communication Research Division at
ETRI, and serves as Chairman of the Technology Committee of 5G Forum in
Korea. His research interests include 5G New Radio and beyond, and 6G
technologies, with his main focus lying in the physical layer aspects of radio
access.

Colin is currently the chairman of the 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA) governing board. He is  also the chairman of the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) governing board. He has detailed knowledge and experience of the telecommunications industry having worked directly or indirectly with many of the major players over a 28-year period. The roles have included software developer, technical consultant, technical marketing, standardization and management. In addition to line manager roles, he has participated extensively in standardization activities at ETSI, ITU-T and 3GPP, including instrumental work in creating and developing the TTCN-3 testing language. Colin has also been very active in the European research ecosystem, including leading a number of award winning European projects such as TT-Medal, D-MINT and SEMAFOUR. Colin is currently head of Research Alliances at Nokia.

Biography to be available shortly.

Ozge Koymen is a senior director of technology at Qualcomm, where he has been since 2006. He has led the 5G/6G millimeter-wave program within Qualcomm Technologies since early 2015, from early conceptual evaluation to commercial deployment. His previous areas as a technical contributor include wireless backhaul, small cells, LTE-D, LTE, and UMB. He received his B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1996, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Stanford University in 1997 and 2003, respectively.

Volker is an energetic, strategic and purpose-driven leader with 25+ years of broad and international experience in the telecommunications industry. He currently serves as Senior Technology Advisor and Chief Architect in Nokia Strategy and Technology unit. Previously, Volker has exercised a leadership role with Nokia Bell Labs in 6G research and ecosystem. Prior to this, he has served as Head of 5G Leadership and Chief Architect of Nokia Mobile Networks.

Dr. Ruyue YN Li is currently the VP of Radio System Research and Standardization at ZTE Corporation in charge of research and standardization on radio system related 5G/6G technologies. He received his Ph.D. and B.Eng. degrees from the University of Hong Kong and his M.S. degree from Stanford University. His research focuses on radio access technologies and network optimization in the cellular communication area with over 100 granted patents. Since he joined ZTE in 2009, he has been actively involved in wireless research and standardization activities including 3GPP RAN standardization. Prior to ZTE, he worked for several telecommunication and semiconductor companies including Qualcomm and Marvell Semiconductor on the projects related to 2G/3G baseband algorithm design and LTE standardization. His recent research interests include massive MIMO, mmWave communications, beam management, RIS, AI/ML applications on MIMO, URLLC, green communication and interference coordination.

Marc Eschenburg is a Partner at Aetha Consulting, a specialist telecommunications strategy consultancy which advises players in the industry on major strategic and regulatory decisions. 

For the last years, Marc has been very active in the area of spectrum management, advising operators and regulators on issues such as spectrum valuation, spectrum strategy, auction support and spectrum pricing. His particular area of expertise lies in overseeing the development of spectrum valuation models ahead of auctions and he has supported spectrum managers and bidders in preparations for over 30 award processes across the world.

Mr. Onoe has worked for NTT and NTT DOCOMO since 1982, acquiring more than 30 years of experience. Prior to his current position, he was President of DOCOMO Technology, Inc. from June 2015 to June 2021. From June 2012 to June 2017, he was Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President and a Member of the Board of Directors of NTT DOCOMO. He took various positions of Managing Director of R&D organizations within NTT DOCOMO as Senior Vice President and Vice President from July 2002 to June 2012.

He has been responsible for leading initiatives in the research and development of the analog cellular system (1G), the digital cellular system (2G), W-CDMA/HSPA (3G), LTE/LTE-Advanced (4G), 5G and beyond.

Mr. Onoe has a master’s degree in electronics from the Kyoto University Graduate School of Engineering. He is a candidate for the next Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau in the election at the Plenipotentiary Conference of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to be held in September 2022.

Bernard Barani graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Bretagne in 1982. He then worked as communications engineer in industry on military infrared systems and then with the European Space Agency on advanced satcom programmes.

In 1994, he joined the European Commission and was responsible for implementation of research and policy issues in wireless communication, Internet, audio visual systems, Software and Services. He has been deputy head of unit for research and policy in the field of Internet of Things systems.

He is currently acting head of unit in charge of research and innovation on Network Technologies in the CONNECT Directorate General of the European Commission. He is responsible for the definition and implementation of the research strategy related to future networks under the 5G Public Private Partnership and to systems based on connected objects (IoT) in support of EU industry competitiveness. He is also responsible for the 5G/IoT standardisation and IPR related work.

Dr. Wen Tong is the CTO, Huawei Wireless. He is the head of Huawei wireless research. In 2011, Dr. Tong was appointed the Head of Communications Technologies Labs of Huawei, currently, he is the Huawei 5G chief scientist and leads Huawei’s 10-year-long 5G wireless technologies research and development.

Prior to joining Huawei in 2009, Dr. Tong was the Nortel Fellow and head of the Network Technology Labs at Nortel. He joined the Wireless Technology Labs at Bell Northern Research in 1995 in Canada.

Dr. Tong is the industry recognized leader in invention and standardization of advanced wireless technologies, he is the key contributor to 3GPP since its inception. Dr. Tong was elected as a Huawei Fellow and an IEEE Fellow. He was the recipient of IEEE Communications Society Industry Innovation Award for “the leadership and contributions in development of 3G and 4G wireless systems” in 2014, and IEEE Communications Society Distinguished Industry Leader Award for “pioneering technical contributions and leadership in the mobile communications industry and innovation in 5G mobile communications technology” in 2018. He is also the recipient of R.A. Fessenden Medal. For the past three decades, he had pioneered fundamental technologies from 1G to 5G wireless and Wi-Fi with more than 450 granted US patents.

Dr. Tong is a Fellow of Canadian Academy of Engineering, and he serves as Board of Director of Wi-Fi Alliance, he is the committee member for “IEEE ComSoc Awards” and “The IEEE Corporate Innovation Award”.

David is currently the ETSI Director of New Technologies (NET), which involves tracking the latest ICT technology and business trends and all relevant research initiatives in order to identify appropriate technology standards needs and future opportunities for ETSI.

In addition, he works on outreach initiatives towards the research and academic communities, both in Europe and globally, as well as engaging with key European research programs such as Horizon Europe.

David has more than 30 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector, which includes over 20 years’ working in ICT standardization supporting both 3GPP and ETSI Technical and strategic groups.

Bio to be available shortly.

Chair of the GSA’s Global Spectrum Team and Director of Samsung’s Spectrum & Industry Affairs.  Previously held a variety of roles including UK government 3G auction team, Nokia standards & regulatory affairs, 4G pioneer start up Flarion Technologies, Qualcomm business development and wireless energy harvesting start-up Drayson Technologies.

Janette is one of Analysys Mason’s senior spectrum experts, with 25 years’ experience in radio engineering, wireless technologies, spectrum policy and spectrum management. Janette joined Analysys Mason in 2001, having previously worked for the UK Radiocommunications Agency (now Ofcom).

Janette’s expertise lies in mobile, wireless and broadband technologies and markets and her consulting experience includes advising on market developments in the wireless sector, wireless technology evolution,  wireless business modelling, spectrum valuation, spectrum strategy, competition and regulation issues in the wireless market. She has worked with a wide range of public- and private-sector clients including national regulators, government departments, network operators, wireless industry trade associations, equipment vendors and telecoms users.

Her recent focus has been on 5G mobile and she has authored several published reports, including a study for Qualcomm and Ericsson on costs and benefits of 5G deployment in Europe, a study on 5G millimetre-wave deployment in Europe, reports for US industry body CTIA comparing 5G readiness in several world markets and a study on the benefits of cellular V2X technology for the 5GAA. Janette holds a BEng in Electronic Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, and an MSc in Radio Communications from the University of Bradford.

Dr. Kyu-Jin WEE is a Vice President of Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) since 2012 April. TTA is an accredited standard development organization for ICT in the Republic of Korea. Before he joined TTA, he was a Director of Radio Research Agency (RRA), Korea Communications Commission. He received the B.E. degree in Engineering in 1981, the M.E. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1983 and the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1988 respectively from Yonsei University. Since 1989 he had been a research engineer in Electronic Material Lab. of Oriental Chemical Industry and he joined RRA in 1991. Since 1995 he has been participating in many ITU meetings such as WRC95, WRC97, WRC2000, WRC03, WRC07 and WRC12 as a delegate of Korea and was Vice-Chairman of Committee 7 during WRC-03. He was also Chairman of Committee 3 of ITU Plenipotentiary Conference 2010. He was a chairman of ITU-R TG8/1 WG4 during 1997 – 1999 and is a vice-chair of ITU-R WP5D since 2000. He has been also participating in several work programs of Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) such as APG (APT Preparatory Group for WRC), ASTAP (APT Standardization Program) and AWG (APT Wireless Group) and vice Chair of Management Committee (MC) of APT from 2002 to 2006 and Chairman of MC of APT during 2009 to 2012. His current interest is spectrum management, radio wave propagation and telecommunication standardization.

Erika Tejedor is Director of Government and Industry relations at Ericsson and focuses on ensuring harmonized future spectrum availability for 5G globally. She has been with Ericsson for over 10 years and during this time, she has focused on spectrum from different perspectives: research, product development, 3GPP RAN4 standardization, spectrum regulation. At the moment, Erika focuses on ITU-R activities and coordinates spectrum related work among the different regions.

Professor Ben Allen is Director of Communication Systems Engineering with OneWeb and Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey. His career has spanned academia and industry, including as a Royal Society Industry Fellow with the University of Oxford and Network Rail. He has led numerous R&D activities relating to communications engineering, several of which exhibited state-of-the-art advances. Over the years he has published numerous papers and several books on radio and telecommunications research developments. He is a Chartered Engineer, Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology, Institute of Telecommunications Professionals, and the Higher Education Academy. 

Dr. Tassos Lyratzis is an Electrical & Computer Engineer, member of the Technical Chamber of Greece. 

He graduated from the National Technical University of Athens (1990) and holds a PhD in the field of Telecommunications & Computer Networks (1994). During his PhD studies, he worked as a specialist in Telecommunications in various European research projects.

He has worked in IMF ltd as Network Equipment engineer (1991-1995) and in INFORMER S.A. as Telecommunications Infrastructure consultant (1995-1996).

He has worked in OTE S.A. as Telecommunications Engineer (1996-2001) in the Network Management Department and participated in standardization activities as well as in European research projects related to Network Management and Fraud detection.

Since 2001 he is working in EETT, in the Spectrum Directorate. He has been the Head of the Spectrum Management Department (2003-2006) when EETT was involved in the Spectrum Management of the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004.

Since 2011 he is Head of Spectrum Directorate of EETT.

He participates in international activities in European Union Regulatory bodies like the Radio Spectrum Committee and the Radio Spectrum Policy Group, CEPT and BEREC.

At Cullen International since 2009, Elena led new service developments in the Americas and, more recently, designed and led the launch of the Global Trends service. With 30 years’ work experience in the sector, before joining Cullen International Elena worked for Telecom Italia and the World Bank.

Chris Woolford is Ofcom’s Director of International Spectrum Policy where his responsibilities cover the UK’s international spectrum interests, especially in relation to the ITU, CEPT and EU. He is a member of Ofcom’s Spectrum Executive Team and sits on various Ofcom Steering Groups.

Mr Woolford is active in various European spectrum committees and is currently Chairman of the CEPT Electronic Communications Committee (ECC). He has closely engaged for the UK on a number of key European initiatives, including the development of the Radio Spectrum Policy Programme, and UK initiatives in relation to the ITU. Mr Woolford led the UK delegations to WRC-15 and WRC-12 and is currently preparing to lead the UK Delegation to WRC-19.

Before joining Ofcom, Mr Woolford worked in various UK Government Departments, including 6 years at Oftel, where he worked on different aspects of telecommunications regulation.

Mr Woolford has a degree in mathematics and statistics from Manchester University.

Biography to be available shortly.

Monisha Ghosh is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and a member of the Notre Dame Wireless Institute. She is also the Policy Outreach Director for SpectrumX (https://www.spectrumx.org/ ), the first NSF Center for Spectrum Innovation and the co-chair of the FCC’s Technological Advisory Council (TAC) Working Group on Advanced Spectrum Sharing. Her research interests are in the development of next generation wireless systems: cellular, Wi-Fi and IoT, with an emphasis on spectrum sharing and coexistence and applications of machine learning to improve network performance. Prior to joining the University of Notre Dame in 2022, she was the Chief Technology Officer at the Federal Communications Commission, a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, Research Professor at the University of Chicago and spent 24 years in industry research at Bell Labs, Philips Research and Interdigital working on a wide variety of wireless systems: HDTV, Wi-Fi, TV White Spaces and cellular. She obtained her B.Tech from IIT Kharagpur in 1986 and Ph.D. from USC in 1991. She is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Dr. Guangyi Liu, Leading Specialist and 6G Director of China Mobile Communication Corporation (CMCC), co-chair of the 6G Alliance of Network AI (6GANA)，Vice chair of THz industry alliance in China, co-chair of the wireless technology working group of IMT-2030 (6G) promotion group supported by Ministry of Information and Industry Technology of China. He is leading the 6G R&D of CMCC since 2018. During 2014~2020, he led the research, standardization and industrialization 5G in CMCC; During 2006~2016, he led the research, standardization and industrialization of 4G’s evolution.

Knud Erik Skouby is professor emeritus, Aalborg University. Founding director of center for Communication, Media and Information technologies, AAU-Copenhagen (2007-17) – a center providing a focal point for multi-disciplinary research and training in applications of CMI. Has a career as a university teacher and within consultancy since 1972; focus on ICT since 1987. Working areas: Techno-economic Analyses; Development of mobile/ wireless applications and services incl issues related to developing countries ; Regulation of telecommunications

Project manager and partner in a number of international, European and Danish research projects. Served on a number of public committees within telecom, IT and broadcasting. Further served as a member of boards of professional societies; as a member of organizing boards, evaluation committees and as invited speaker on international conferences; published a number of Danish and international articles, books and conference proceedings.

Member of EU’s Economic and Social Council 1994-98. Past dep. chair IEEE Denmark. Editor in chief of Nordic and Baltic Journal of Information and Communication Technologies (NBICT); Chair of WGA in Wireless World Research Forum.

As Director of Spectrum and Standards for EchoStar Corporation, Munira’s focus is on advancing satellite technology to be part of the next generation of integrated networks across the 5G ecosystem. In this capacity Munira plays an active role at 3GPP and other forums in contributing to and advocating for non-terrestrial networks (NTN) to be included in the 5G specifications. Along with others satellite stakeholders, Munira helped lead the successful effort to gain approval for work items leading to the completion of NTN-NR and NTN-IoT specifications in 3GPP Rel-17. Prior to EchoStar, Munira served as a senior advisor developing business and technical strategy for the design and execution of deployment plans for FirstNet, the US nationwide public safety LTE broadband network, incorporating both terrestrial and non-terrestrial solutions. Earlier in her career Munira held various key positions with telecom and technology organizations including Sprint Nextel, Lockheed Martin, and LCC International. Her roles included managing cellular network planning and participating in numerous wireless deployment and spectrum management projects. Munira is currently Chair of the Standards Working Group of Global Satellite Operator Association (GSOA) https://gsoasatellite.com. She received her MBA from the George Washington University and holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. She also holds a PMP certification from the Project Management Institute.

Mohamed-Slim Alouini was born in Tunis, Tunisia. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in 1998. He served as a faculty member at the University of Minnesota then in the Texas A&M University at Qatar before joining in 2009 the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) where he is now a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Prof. Alouini is a Fellow of the IEEE and Optica (Formerly the Optical Society of America (OSA)). He is currently particularly interested in addressing the technical challenges associated with the uneven distribution, access to, and use of information and communication technologies in far-flung, rural, low-income, disaster, and/or hard-to-reach areas.

Gustav Wikström is a Technology Leader at Ericsson Research working with 6G. After receiving his PhD in Physics 2009 (Stockholm U.) and post-doc studies in Geneva, he joined Ericsson in 2011, where he has worked with standardization of WLAN, 4G, and 5G, network performance simulations, and concept development. Gustav is chairing the 6G-IA subgroup on Societal Needs and Value Creation, and is part of the Hexa-X research project on 6G. He is based in Stockholm, Sweden.