The University of Oulu has announced a cooperation by the Finnish 6G Flagship research programme with Japan's Beyond 5G Promotion Consortium. The two parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on mutual 6G technology cooperation at the Global Digital Summit organised by the ministry and The Nikkei.
The university said 6G Flagship and the Beyond 5G Promotion Consortium are now launching research and development collaboration into 6G technology. They aim to to contribute significantly to the global standardisation and regulatory development of 6G.
The director of 6G Flagship, Academy professor Matti Latva-aho, said the MoU is significant for Finnish 6G R&D. He said Japan is a major global player in developing wireless mobile technologies and it is in Finland's interest to expand the cooperation to topics where mutual competitive advantage can be achieved for 6G development. He said the importance of the collaboration is underlined by Japan’s decision earlier this spring to invest USD 2 billion in the development of 6G technologies.
The University of Oulu coordinates the Finnish scheme, and the Japanese one is under the auspices of Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
6G Flagship is funded by the Academy of Finland and Oulu university from 2018−2026.
In addition to the University of Tokyo and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, the major members of the Beyond 5G Promotion Consortium include several Japanese telecommunications companies, operators and the conglomerate SoftBank.
