- Southeast Asian countries are investing to grow their contribution to 6G standardization
- Japan and South Korea have an edge in 6G over other countries in the region
- Funding and regulatory challenges can impact the efforts of Southeast Asian countries to make a mark in 6G
The global development race for 6G is heating up and Southeast Asian countries have started making significant efforts to increase their contribution to the development of 6G standards. Analysts told Fierce that among these, South Korea and Japan have an edge.
Shiv Putcha, founder and principal analyst at Mandala Insights, noted “in Asia, there are many countries that are looking to make an impact with 6G. Japan and South Korea are arguably further along than the others."
“The opportunities for these nations are large. Both Japan and South Korea have telecom vendors but smaller in scale. 6G offers them a way to deal themselves back into the game," he continued.
Swathi Arunaa, senior research analyst for Telecommunications at IDC Asia Pacific, agreed. “Interest in 6G is prominent in the Asia Pacific region. Significant resources and investments are seen in China, Japan and South Korea for 6G R&D," she said.
For instance, South Korea recently unveiled the K-Network 2030 plan, proposing the launch of 6G around 2028. Meanwhile, Japan has set up a fund of around $450 million for 6G research.
Elsewhere, India came up with a Bharat 6G Vision document with a target to launch services by 2030. In addition, Vietnam’s Ministry of Information and Communications recently established a 6G Steering Committee to ensure the country launches 6G by 2028, close to launch in developed parts of the world.
“By participating in 6G standardization, nations can help shape the development of technologies that will be crucial for future communication systems, ensuring that they are well-positioned to benefit from the next wave of innovations," said Gareth Owen, associate director at Counterpoint Research. "This involvement is essential for aligning the technological evolution with national interests, fostering innovation, and ultimately driving economic growth through the deployment of advanced communication networks."
There is also a growing number of collaborations between local telcos to advance their 6G goals. For instance, LG and KT recently collaborated “to take the lead in 6G mobile communications technology and strengthen global 6G standardization leadership.”
Another example is Singapore’s Singtel and South Korea’s SK Telecom signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build next-generation telecom networks and “explore the use of artificial intelligence (AI), orchestration tools, and deepen the domain knowledge of network virtualization and other technologies, central to laying the necessary building blocks for progressing to 6G.”
Japan and South Korea's vendor advantage
Besides commitment and financial power, the presence of major vendors like NEC and Fujitsu in Japan and Samsung in South Korea also helps the countries gain an edge over others in the region. This is important because vendors play a crucial role in the development of new standards.
"Samsung is a good example of a vendor that has a lot to gain from 6G to drive greater market share. In Japan, NEC and Fujitsu are two examples of vendors who have sizable telecom businesses but have not had much traction outside Japan,” explained Putcha.
Hurdles
However, despite an increase in activities, other Southeast Asian nations face several challenges, such as funding, regulations and policy changes required to drive collaboration between telcos and academia.
“Southeast Asian countries and even India have limited resources relative to Japan and Korea. Forget about the U.S. and China where large R&D budgets and government support have been available for telecom R&D. These nations would do well to explore either niche segments of the emerging 6G standard or invest in research that will make 6G relevant for their local markets,” Putcha concluded.