The Next G Alliance Spectrum Working Group:Proactively Addressing the Spectrum Issues of the Next G World

March 20, 2025

Andrew Thiessen, Fabiano Chaves and Alexander Sayenko

The Next G Alliance’s Spectrum Working Group has been working diligently over the past several years to address a set of challenges where spectrum intersects with the needs for 6G in North America. And as most anyone reading this will agree, spectrum is the lifeblood through which commercial mobile broadband operates. Therefore, the determination of spectrum needs and access for 6G are foundational to its success.

Defining the Terms

In its work, the Working Group’s first challenge was to address the widely varying vocabulary used when discussing spectrum. It found there are many ways to refer to different parts of spectrum, be it what is used by standards development organizations or academia or the language of individual corporate vernaculars. The Group acted quickly to reach consensus on how to refer to spectrum so that a dialogue on these issues could begin. This work is available inTerminology for Frequency Ranges.

Assessing Utilization and Suitable Spectrum Bands

Next up was to assess existing spectrum utilization and potential 6G suitable spectrum bands, and so the Working Group pieced together a comprehensive report detailing the same. See 6G Spectrum Considerations.

6G Spectrum Needs

Then we embarked on a major piece of work for the team – to quantify spectrum needs for 6G. Recognizing that 6G technical characteristics and requirements are underway, a straightforward methodology was used with the consideration of aspects specific to North American markets. North American commercial mobile broadband deployments typically have larger inter-site distances (ISD) than what is commonly used in simulation in 3GPP, so the team undertook multiple simulation studies using realistic ISD for the region. These studies were closely coupled with use-case analyses concluded by the NGA Applications Working Group. See Spectrum Needs for 6G.

Spectrum Access

Our most recent publication was focused on spectrum access mechanisms based on the likely approaches to spectrum regulation:1) exclusively licensed, 2) shared licensed, and 3) unlicensed. In the analysis, it became clear that while past “G’s” focused almost entirely on licensed spectrum cleared for mobile use, the industry would need to embrace all three types of spectrum access. Just as importantly, it is critical that future radio technologies are specified so that mobile networks can operate in all these types of spectrum, in associated spectrum bands. This will expand spectrum availability considering the anticipated challenges in identifying new spectrum for mobile networks in desirable spectrum bands, especially given the needs projected. See Spectrum Access Mechanisms.

A Look Toward the Future

The Working Group is focused on the next steps. As many are aware, the U.S. government (USG) published a National Spectrum Strategy along with an Implementation Plan. The Working Group analyzed all the deliverables in the Implementation Plan and selected and prioritized those where we thought we could have the greatest substantive impact. We are looking forward to engaging with the USG to help us steer in the right direction of the next calendar year!

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About the Authors

Andrew Thiessen

Chair at Next G Alliance Spectrum Working Group

Andrew Thiessen is the Head of 5G/xG at the MITRE Corporation, which is a non-profit that works in the public interest across Federal, state, and local governments, as well as industry and academia. Andrew works across the corporation coordinating more than 80 engineers working on US Government projects and leads MITRE Lab’s internal research & development for 5G/xG. Andrew is the MITRE representative to the NextG Alliance Steering Group and the Chair of the NextG Alliance Spectrum Working Group.

Before joining MITRE, Andrew Thiessen was the Division Chief for the Telecommunications and Information Planning Division of the Institute for Telecommunication Sciences, where he led the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s efforts on 5G standards and R&D.

Andrew did his undergraduate academic work at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in both Electrical Engineering and English. He received his Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and his Master’s in Business Administration from Duke University. Andrew is the recipient of Department of Commerce Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals for his work in public safety communications. He is also the recipient of the DJ Atkinson Technical Award from NPSTC.

Fabiano Chaves

Vice Chair at Next G Alliance Spectrum Working Group

Fabiano Chaves is the Head of Spectrum Standardization for North America at Nokia, being part of the Nokia Standards and Strategy. He participates in standardization and policy work with customers, in industry groups and with national and international regulatory bodies, such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). He has been Nokia’s representative in the FCC’s World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) Advisory Committee (WAC) for WRC-23 and WRC-27. He also serves as Spectrum Working Group Vice Chair in the ATIS Next G Alliance.

Fabiano has over 20 years of experience in telecommunications, with activities spanning from research on wireless systems and networks (3G, 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi) to spectrum research, strategy, regulation and standardization. He has been continuously contributing to research/regulation/standardization bodies on overall radio system aspects of the International Mobile Telecommunications (IMT) and sharing and compatibility between IMT and other systems.

Fabiano is co-author of 40+ papers in top-tier journals and conferences and 15+ patents. He received his Ph.D. in Telecommunications from the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Cachan (ENS-Cachan, France) and the University of Campinas (Unicamp, Brazil), and his M.Sc. in Teleinformatics Engineering from the Federal University of Ceará (UFC, Brazil).

Alexander Sayenko

Wireless Architect at Apple

Alexander Sayenko is a Wireless Architect at Apple participating in standardization and regulatory bodies including 3GPP and ITU-R. He has more than 20 years of experience in wireless system research, development and standardization. His involvement in wireless technologies started with the IEEE 802.16 WiMAX project. Later, his work focused on activities led by the 3GPP standardization body, in particular HSPA+ and LTE wireless technologies. Alexander was a rapporteur of several 3GPP specifications and led a number of 3GPP WIs.

For 5G/NR technology, he made significant contributions to system wide aspects that include not only the 3GPP RAN WGs, but also CT WG1 (networks access) and SA WG (system architecture). Alexander’s most recent focus has been on 3GPP 5G/NR spectrum-related activities for which he led several WIs, such as dynamic spectrum sharing for the CBRS band and 6GHz unlicensed band for 5G/NR technology. He led the 3GPP spectrum WI to enable the satellite L-/S-band into the 3GPP core specifications, and made several contributions to other satellite spectrum WIs.

Alexander holds BSc in Information and Control Systems, MSc in Mobile Computing and PhD in Telecommunications.