The ITU IMT-2020 Standardization: Lessons from 5G and Future Perspectives for 6G

The evaluation of candidate International Mobile Telecommunications-2020 (IMT-2020) radio interfaces ended in February 2021, with three technologies being approved while another two were granted additional time to demonstrate their suitability. This marks a useful milestone at which the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) standardization process can be evaluated, and its implications for 6G explored. We argue that the relationship between IMT standardization and identification is increasingly problematic, with identification requiring the refarming of spectrum already allocated to other services. Furthermore, as standardization is largely done outside of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), being part of IMT is largely a way to obtain more spectrum. While these developments question the value of the existing approach, we argue that changes are necessary to the IMT standardization processes given the value to be gained from a single global mobile standard.