Canada has joined international partners including the United States, Australia, the Czech Republic, Finland, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom in endorsing the Joint Statement of Principles for 6G.
6G is the successor to 5G cellular technology and is expected to be significantly faster, while enabling new applications using Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence, augmented reality and more.
The statement seeks to advance research and development and standardization of 6G networks, fulfilling principles like resilience, security by design, privacy interoperability, energy-efficiency, transparency and more. Additionally, the principles lay out a number of standards that facilitate international cooperation.
The agreement bolsters the U.S. and its partners’ attempt to influence the future standards of 6G, amid concerns that China could dominate 6G’s rollout, as it did with 5G, Axios noted in an article.
“We believe this to be an indispensable contribution towards building a more inclusive, sustainable, secure, and peaceful future for all, and call upon other governments, organizations, and stakeholders to join us in supporting and upholding these principles,” the White House added in a release.
Canada’s endorsement of the Joint Principles for 6G will build on work under the Telecommunications Reliability Agenda, a set of actions tasked to improve the reliability of telecommunications services in Canada.
The Joint Principles for 6G will also build on Canada’s international cooperation under the Global Coalition on Telecommunications, the Prague Proposals on Telecommunications Supplier Diversity and the UK’s Open RAN Principles, which Canada endorsed in 2022.
“Canadians depend on telecommunications services being reliable and secure every day, whether for personal connectivity or the digital economy,” said Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne. “Our government has endorsed these shared principles for 6G so that Canadians can continue to benefit from the latest wireless technologies. We look forward to working together with our international partners and industry to ensure wireless communications are secure and reliable in Canada and around the world.”
