Notice

Global Coalition on Telecommunications: joint statement of intent

Published 5 October 2023

Ensuring the security, resilience, and innovation of telecommunications networks is a global issue. The international community needs to work together to foster diverse supply chains, secure and interoperable standards, and innovation - including for the development of future telecommunications technologies such as 6G.

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, United Kingdom; the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, Australia; the Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development, Canada; the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan; and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, United States of America therefore commit to establishing a Global Coalition on Telecommunications (GCOT) to coordinate multilateral initiatives in support of these shared objectives, in particular to:

• increase cooperation and coordination between the GCOT partners on telecommunications, including by improving information sharing with a view to ensuring complementary national approaches
• build broader international consensus on key areas of telecommunications policy in support of our shared objectives
• enable dialogue between policymakers, industry, and academia
• promote innovation and growth opportunities for industry

To achieve these objectives, the GCOT partners set out to explore opportunities for closer collaboration and coordination in areas including but not limited to:

1. Information sharing

We plan to use the GCOT as a forum to exchange information on our respective policy approaches to telecommunications, including telecommunications supplier diversity, future telecommunications, and related security considerations. We also plan to encourage information sharing between our respective testing and research facilities whilst exploring opportunities to reduce challenges around sharing of research and intellectual property management. We further intend to inform the GCOT’s efforts through meaningful engagement with industry stakeholders and to promote sharing of relevant information directly between these actors as they deem appropriate.

2. Join up on research and development (R&D)

The GCOT partners intend to explore opportunities to take a complementary and cooperative approach to R&D through the sharing of information on our respective national programmes and considering where there are synergies and overlap between our priorities. This could include joint, co-funded R&D programmes, dialogues between parallel projects, and pairing up of our respective telecommunications labs. We recognise that research, development, and innovation are primarily driven by industry and we set out to work collaboratively with industry as a critical partner to achieving our shared objectives. We intend to look to establish ‘innovation bridges’ across telecommunications innovation ecosystems, including through expos, hackathons, and pitch sessions.

3. Alignment of funding priorities

Whilst recognising that decisions on national R&D funding are ultimately for partners to make, the GCOT partners plan to discuss our respective approaches to R&D and consider where there may be opportunities for more strategic alignment, as well as considering options to pool our collective resources in order to deliver larger scale joint projects where appropriate.

4. Supporting vision setting and standards development

We intend to explore options to support principles on open disaggregation, standards-based compliance, demonstrated interoperability, and implementation neutrality, such as those set out in the 2021 Prague Proposals on Telecommunications Supplier Diversity, and the UK’s Open RAN Principles.

We intend to support telecommunications vision setting and standards development when appropriate, including by coordinating approaches to established standards development organisations between international partners and industry stakeholders.

We intend to support the industry-led, inclusive multi-stakeholder international standards process and work to remove barriers to involvement.

5. International outreach and collaboration

We plan to coordinate on our approaches to existing multilateral and relevant multi-stakeholder fora and support existing multilateral activity by considering how to support initiatives from other fora.

We plan to enhance cooperation with international partners and support developing countries and emerging economies to build secure and resilient digital infrastructure.

Scope

The GCOT partners expect to focus on topics including, but not exclusively limited to:

• Telecommunications Supply Chain Diversification
• 6G and Future Telecommunications
• Telecommunications Security and Resilience
• Telecommunications Skills
• Coordinated Approaches to Telecommunications Standards Development

Governance and membership

The GCOT steering group is expected to meet twice per year, with one in-person and one virtual meeting every six months, to discuss cooperation on specific topics of shared interest.

The GCOT partners are expected to take responsibility for coordinating the GCOT’s wider activity and may meet on a more frequent basis depending on active workstreams. As an early deliverable, we intend to work collaboratively to identify and engage with other potential partners, as well as identifying and engaging with industry and academia, which are essential in delivering the GCOT’s objectives.

We do not intend the GCOT to undermine or replace existing international fora, and we recognise the importance of working closely with these fora to advance consensus and collaboration on telecommunications.