26 October – 1 November 2026. A quiet week between meetings: NGMN's vendor questionnaire on MRSS is the most concrete standardization-related item, while the 6G core architecture dispute waits for SA2#178 in Calgary.

How the industry reads it

Selected press and company statements with our reading. These are claims by the named source, not 3GPP decisions.

NGMN wants proof that MRSS runs on deployed 5G hardware

NGMN says its board has asked RAN vendors to confirm whether multi-RAT spectrum sharing (MRSS) between 5G and 6G works on existing deployed hardware and current bands without performance loss. Chair Laurent Leboucher (Orange) says uncertainty blocks an informed 3GPP decision. Our reading: operators want to avoid hardware replacement, but the evidence comes from vendors who profit from selling new equipment, and the answers stay confidential, so delegates at RAN#114 in Boston (7-10 December 2026) cannot verify the data behind the decision.

Source: NGMN Alliance press release, 29 October 2026 · industry association · ngmn.org

Telefónica: fewer features in 6G, predictable AI

Telefónica's representative warned against putting too many new features into 6G until operators show they need them, citing 5G features that never became viable applications. He backs an evolutionary approach, with AI free to analyse telemetry but configuration changes kept predictable. Our reading: this repeats the September position of 17 operators and fits Direction 1 and partly 2 in the FS_6G_ARC study. It adds another public voice before SA2#178 in Calgary (16-20 November), and 'fewer features' suits operators with limited capex, not vendors.

Source: Techzine Global, reporting on Telefónica's Luis Miguel Contreras Murillo at Techritory in Riga (27 October 2026) · press · techzine.eu

3GPP adds GTI and MSSA as Market Representation Partners

The organizational partners meeting OP#56 on 22 October 2026 approved GTI and the Mobile Satellite Services Association (MSSA) as new Market Representation Partners. MSSA says it will bring coordinated requirements on direct satellite-to-device, terrestrial-satellite roaming and spectrum management. Our reading: these partners can submit requirements but have no individual member votes. GTI gives China-coordinated requirements a new channel during the 6G core dispute, and MSSA has a clear commercial interest in standardized NTN roaming, as Release 21 scope closes (March 2027).

Source: 3gpp.org news (22 and 28 October 2026) and MSSA · 3GPP · 3gpp.org, 3gpp.org

SJTU reports RAN1 progress on LDPC BG3 and ISAC waveforms

SJTU says its proposed LDPC base graph BG3 shows a 0.47-1.57 dB gain over NR BG1 in its simulations, and that a joint proposal with Qualcomm, Chinese operators, ZTE and others led RAN1 to agree to study pulse and chirp waveforms for ISAC. Our reading: the gains come from the authors' own simulations under favourable conditions, and the agreement is only to study. The broad coalition shows cooperation across camps in the radio part, unlike in the core.

Source: Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Integrated Circuits (28 October 2026) · vendor · icisee.sjtu.edu.cn

WBA wants Wi-Fi in 6G design from the start

WBA published requirements for integrating Wi-Fi and 6G, covering multi-vendor interoperability, authentication, QoS-aware traffic steering and mobility, while admitting that earlier 4G and 5G convergence was held back by cost, complexity and split responsibility. Our reading: this is a position paper with no concrete proposal or operator backing at SA2, and it pulls against operators who want fewer variants and features.

Source: Wireless Broadband Alliance, '6G & Wi-Fi Requirements' report (via TelcoNews, 30 October 2026) · industry association · telconews.co.uk

What's next

  • Next working group meetings: 16–20 November 2026 in Calgary, Calgary, Canada, Calgary, CA (CT1#164, CT3#150, CT4#138, RAN1#127, RAN2#136, RAN3#134, RAN4#121, RAN5#113, SA1#116, SA2#178, SA3#131, SA4#138, SA5#170, SA6#76, CT6#128).
  • Next plenaries: CT#114 (Boston, 7–8 December 2026); RAN#114 (Boston, 7–10 December 2026); SA#114 (Boston, 8–11 December 2026).
  • Next milestone: ITU-R WP 5D #54: submissions of IMT-2030 (6G) radio interface proposals begin, February 2027 (planned).

Maintenance in the Work Plan and specification catalogue: 81 new specification versions, 20 specifications added to a release.