Leading the industry on the standardization of 5G and beyond

Today marks another key milestone that validates the leadership Qualcomm brings to the mobile industry and its commitment to single global standard for cellular technologies.

I am honored to congratulate my colleague Dr. Wanshi Chen, senior director of technology at Qualcomm Technologies, who was elected by 3GPP members as the next chairman of 3GPP RAN Plenary. Up to now, Wanshi has been serving as the Chair for RAN1 Working Group — one of the most prestigious leadership positions in 3GPP that focuses on the physical layer of the radio interface. For the next two years, after this election, he will take on the expanded role of 3GPP TSG RAN Chair, which was most recently held by Nokia’s Balázs Bertényi (since 2017), and previously by Qualcomm Europe veteran, Dino Flore (between 2013 and 2017).

3GPP RAN oversees all the working groups that deal with the radio access specifications development, including physical layer, radio protocols, radio access networks, performance requirements, and conformance testing. RAN Plenary is specifically responsible for the overall project management of these working groups, which means how and when new projects (and features) get approved, how projects progress, and how they are shaped and prioritized.

As for other positions of this kind, the primary task of the elected Chair is to make sure all Working Groups operate collaboratively and to foster consensus among all member companies, facilitating the continued expansion of 5G, and potentially formulating initial plans toward the industry’s 6G vision.

Wanshi brings more than 20 years of rich, global telecommunications industry experience and leadership to this position — including involvement with operators, infrastructure vendors, and chipset vendors. Since joining Qualcomm in 2006, he has been heavily engaged in the design of cellular systems and actively contributed to the design, development, and specifications of LTE and 5G NR. Furthermore, he has played a key role in 3GPP through active participation and leadership in 3GPP RAN1 and 3GPP RAN plenary for more than 13 years, dating back to 3GPP Release 8, which introduced 4G LTE. Over the last four years, Wanshi has successfully served as 3GPP RAN1 Chairman, managing a wide range of RAN1 sessions on 5G NR for timely completion of the accelerated first 5G standard — Release 15 — as well as the feature-rich Release 16 that faced tremendous challenges from recent travel and large meeting restrictions.

Wanshi received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California. When he is not contributing to the next generation of wireless technology, his relentless pursuit for excellence extends to his hobbies — he is an avid marathon runner with a personal best time of 2 hour and 54 minutes.

Wanshi’s new position continues a long history of leadership in wireless technical standards at Qualcomm, beginning with CDMA more than 30 years ago, and our ongoing commitment to the success of 3GPP and its diverse ecosystem.

I am very confident that Wanshi will give his best to drive the continued evolution and expansion of the 5G industry into new devices, services, spectrum, deployments, and vertical industries in the upcoming 5G NR releases, as well as ultimately leading the world to 6G.

Congrats, Wanshi, on your election to 3GPP TSG RAN Chair!

Learn more

To learn more about 3GPP and how cellular standards like 4G and 5G get created, please check out this blog post. You can also read more about the value of technologies standards, which are essential for interoperability, ecosystem development, and future innovation.