The International Conference on Beyond 3G Mobile Communications-2006 (ICB3G-2006) was held from September 20th to 21st in Seoul, Korea. The Chinese delegation of large scale headed by Mr. Feng Jichun, Director-General of Department of High and New Technology Development and Industrialization of MOST attended the conference and consequently visited Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC), Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), and the headquarter of Samsung Company. Members of Chinese delegation had a profound communication and discussion with Korean representatives on the improvement of mutual technical cooperation as well as on the recent advancement in the R&D of mobile communication technology achieved by both of the two countries.

The Chinese delegation consisted of Mr. Zhu Gaofeng, President of CCSA, Mr. Qiang Xiaozhe, Director of Department of High and New Technology Development and Industrialization of MOST, Prof. You Xiaohu, Principal Expert of National 863 FuTURE Project and Vice Chairman of FuTURE FORUM, Prof. Zhang Ping from BUPT, Vice Chairman of FuTURE FORUM, Ms. Fu Jun, Vice Secretary-General of FuTURE FORUM, Ms. Shi Youyan from FuTURE FORUM Secretariat, and experts from China Academy of Telecom. Research, MII as well as representatives from some domestic enterprises such as Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd..

International Conference on Beyond 3G Mobile Communications-2006 (ICB3G-2006)

ICB3G-2006, hosted by MIC of Republic of Korea and undertaken by NGMC FORUM, is the fifth conference since it was initiated in 2002 in Beijing. It is a grand conference on the development of technology, spectrum and standardization related to the future mobile communication. The fifth conference held in Korea, with the tenet of developing B3G technology, promoting the cooperation among China, Korea and Japan on standardization and enhancing the friendship among the three countries, was mainly focused on such subjects as B3G Vision and Service, B3G Technology, B3G Spectrum, and B3G Standardization.
On the opening ceremony held on the morning of September 20th, Mr. Pil-Gye Ryoo, Vice Minister of MIC, made a welcome speech on behalf of the host, and Mr. Feng Jichun, Director-General of Department of High and New Technology Development and Industrialization of MOST of China, also addressed his congratulation to the conference in which he expressed that the Chinese Government and all domestic circles attached great importance and support to the conference as well as to the development of future mobile communication and expected to further advance the next generation mobile communication technology through the close cooperation with Korea and other foreign countries.

In the “National R&D Activities” Session, Prof. You Xiaohu, Principal Expert of National 863 FuTURE Project, gave a lecture on “Recent Progress of the FuTURE’s B3G Testbed” in which he introduced the framework of B3G technical system in FuTURE Project and the outfield test related to the key technologies. Additionally, principals of the national R&D activities from Korea, Japan and European Union respectively presented their R&D activities and the latest progress they had achieved recently.
Prof. Zhang Ping, Vice Chairman of FuTURE FORUM and Mr. Wan Yi, Chairman of the fourth working group of FuTURE FORUM, in turn introduced the current situation of FuTURE FORUM, the recent events held and the development of China’s B3G standardization. Meanwhile, representatives from mITF, NGMC and WWRF, and experts from Korean and Japanese Standardization Organizations all made excellent lectures and had more penetrative exchanges in the following group discussions.

The representative from Huawei Technology Co., Ltd., one of the founder members of FuTURE FORUM also presented their achievements and progress in the research on B3G technology. Representatives from NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, Fujitsu, LG-Nortel, Samsung, LG-Electronics, SK Telecom, KT, KTE and Qualcomm (Korea) all gave great lectures in which the latest domestic and international R&D of B3G and relative technology was expatiated in details.

The Fourth Cross-Forum Conference

Right after the ICB3G-2006, the fourth Cross-Forum Conference (among FuTURE FORUM from China, mITF Forum from Japan, NGMC Forum from Korea and WWRF Forum from Europe) was held on September 22nd in Seoul, Korea. The experts from the four forums had a discussion in Ritz-Carlton Hotel focusing on such subjects as the preparation for CPM articles related to ITU WP8F Conference and the B3G Vision and System Concept.

The Cross-Forum Conference was attended by the experts from the four forums, including Prof. You Xiaohu, Secretary-General of FuTURE FORUM, Prof. Zhang Ping, Vice Chairman of FuTURE FORUM, Ms. Fu Jun, Vice Secretary-General of FuTURE FORUM, Mr. Wang Hu, representative of the forum working group, Prof. Kohei Satoh and Mr. Masayoshi Ohashi from mITF Forum, Prof. Seung Ku Hwang, Chairman of NGMC Forum and Prof. Woogoo Park from NGMC Forum and Prof. Werner Mohr from WWRF Forum.

The conference was hosted by Prof. Seung-Ku Hwang, on which the representatives first reviewed the 19th and 20th ITU-R WP8F conferences, and heatedly discussed the SHARING issue and circular letter concerned the nominated B3G technology that was confirmed as the important item in the following work.

In the special discussion focused on the B3G Vision and System Concept, Mr. Wang Hu from Huawei Technology Co., Ltd. reported on “User Demand and System Concept of Future Mobile Communication System”, in which he made a detailed introduction of the latest progress achieved by the first and second working groups of FuTURE FORUM. The experts from other forums also reported on their researches. Prof. You Xiaohu gave a brief introduction to the White Paper on B3G User Demands and Relative Technology planned by FuTURE FORUM, which was supposed to be completed by the end of 2006 and was paid a lot attention by all the representatives.

Finally, the representatives exchanged their views on the research on the sharing of spectrum resources and the constitution of B3G circular letter, and initially determined the subject of the fifth and sixth Cross-Forum Conferences that would be held next year as well as the approximate time and venue of the conferences.

Visit to Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC)

Invited by MIC of Korea, the Chinese delegation headed by Mr. Feng Jichun, Director-General of Department of High and New Technology Development and Industrialization of MOST paid a visit to Ministry of Information and Communication of Korea (MIC) on the afternoon of September 21st. The Chinese delegation was warmly received by the Korean governors captained by Minister Pil-Gye Ryoo and Prof. Seung-Ku Hwang, Vice Director of ETRIMinister Pil-Gye Ryoo, after extending his welcome and gratitude to Director Feng Jichun, reviewed the cooperation between China and Korea during the recent years. The cooperation with Tsinghua University, Southeast University and Peking University that started in 2002 is now entering the second phase and is planned to be enhanced so as to be included in the Korean Development Plan. According to Minister Pil-Gye Ryoo, the cooperation between China and Korea should be strengthened and more penetrative cooperation should be carried out concerning the research and development of standardization, with the mobile communication service developing rapidly. Four meetings have been held since China and Korea signed the cooperative agreement in 2002, and the Korean Government expected to discuss the cooperation in more details on the fifth meeting.

Director Feng Jichun expressed his congratulation to the success of ICB3G-2006 held by MIC of Korea and his gratitude for being invited by Korean Government. Director Feng said that China had achieved a lot in the research on B3G mobile communication technology since the MOST of China and MIC of Korea signed the cooperative memorandum last year. The cooperation among Southeast University, BUPT, ETRI and Samsung Company was carried out successfully and promoted gradually. Since the ICB3G-2005 was held in Shanghai last year, FuTURE FORUM from China has conducted quite a lot of cooperation with NGMC Forum from Korea, and Director Feng hoped that the two forums would cooperate more closely to enhance the communication between each other.

The both parties also discussed over the bilateral conference that would be held in this year. As a result, China and Korea would start preparing for the conference as soon as possible in order to determine the subjects for the conference.

Finally, the both parties expressed that they would not only work together closely, but also support each other in the international arena, and make great effort to become an influential power in the field of B3G Technology in East Asia.

In addition, the Chinese delegation visited Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) and the headquarter of Samsung Company. They were also shown around the U-Dream Exhibition Hall and learned the most advanced achievements in information and communication technology. The representatives were offered the opportunity to experience the application of the latest information and communication technology in the future households, cars and even supermarkets.