ITU Receives IMT-Advanced Proposals

GENEVA -- ITU has received six candidate technology submissions for the global 4G mobile wireless broadband technology known as IMT-Advanced. The selected technologies are expected to be accorded the official designation of IMT-Advanced - to qualify as true 4G technologies - in October 2010.

The submissions were made in Dresden, Germany at the meeting of ITU’s Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) Working Party 5D in response to an open invitation in March 2008. The meeting was held 14-21 October 2009.

The six proposals aligned around the 3GPP LTE Release 10 and beyond (LTE-Advanced) technology and the IEEE 802.16m technology, will be assessed against ITU-R requirements using a defined evaluation process. This rigorous assessment over the next year will be supported by the work of independent external evaluation groups that have been established around the world and will take place under the direction of ITU-R Working Party 5D.

In conjunction with the Dresden meeting, the third Workshop on IMT-Advanced provided an opportunity to technology proponents and evaluation groups to interact. As a jump-start to the assessment phase, fourteen evaluation groups registered with ITU-R, representing the whole gamut of stakeholders, including equipment manufacturers, technology developers, network operators and service providers, market and user organizations, universities, research institutions and national administrations.

ITU Secretary-General, Hamadoun Touré, expressed his appreciation for this worldwide effort. "We note with excitement that the technology developments in wireless communication continue to expand their reach and application to enrich the lives of people around the world," Touré said. "ITU has a rich history of more than 25 years in coordinating and advancing global broadband multimedia international mobile telecommunications systems. IMT-Advanced continues this tradition by not only leading with a strategic vision, but also in translating the vision into practical reality in this challenging ICT environment."

ITU Telecom