- Korean Chairman elected at the 3GPP RAN WG1
- High expectations for a leadership in B5G standardizations



The Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Choi Kiyoung; "MSIT") and the Telecommunications Technology Association (President Choi Young-hae; "TTA") announced that Samsung Electronics' Master Kim Younsun was elected as Chair of the 3GPP* RAN** Working Group 1 (RAN1) for a two-year term at the election held during RAN WG1#105-e meeting from 10 to 18 May 2021.
* The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP)
** The Radio Access Network (RAN) is an private international organization for cooperation on mobile communications standardization; it was co-founded and is jointly operated by the TTA with American, European, Chinese, and Japanese standard developing organizations.



The MSIT is supporting standardization activities to help domestic standard experts play a leading role in international standard developing organizations such as RAN1, in order to maintain Korea’s global leadership in next-generation mobile communications network (6G) and convergence industries.



Dr. Kim Younsun, the new Chair of RAN WG1, is esteemed to have successfully led the 3GPP 5G standardization by overseeing meetings on core 5G technologies* as Vice Chair of RAN WG1 since 2017.
* MIMO (Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output), eMTC (enhanced Machine Type Communication), NR power control, IAB (Integrated Access Backhaul), DSS (Dynamic Spectrum Sharing)



Through Dr. Kim being elected as Chair of the 3GPP RAN WG1, Korea now has a higher chance of leading the standardization of Release 18, a technology more advanced than the initial commercial 5G technology. It is also significant that this has laid a foundation for being one step ahead in preparation for the next-generation mobile communications network (6G).



In August 2020, the MSIT published the Future Mobile Network Research and Development Promotion Strategy to Take the Lead in the Age of 6G Generation and clearly stated its goal to actively promote international standardization activities at organizations such as 3GPP and in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in order to take the lead in 6G network.



Deputy Minister Heo Sungwook of the Office of Network Policy from the MSIT said, "Being elected as Chair of the 3GPP RAN1, following being elected as Chair of the 6G Vision Group of the ITU in March, will give Korea an advantage in the international competition for 5G technology standardization and help us have technological dominance in 6G."



Deputy Minister Heo said, "Based on know-how accumulated in the process of international standardization of 5G, we will actively support domestic industry's participation in 3GPP standard setting process and related activities so that Korea can also take the lead in international 6G standards."



For further information, please contact Deputy Director Lee Byung Ho(E-mail : mc3160@korea.kr) and Kang Dong Wan(E-mail : iclark@korea.kr) of the MInistry of Science and ICT.