Avanci to continue engagement with the Forum’s platforms to help shape the global agenda on key issues
Avanci, a leader in enabling the sharing of technologies used by a wide range of products, has been invited to become part of the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community.
The Global lnnovators Community is a group of the world’s most promising start-ups and scale-ups that are at the forefront of technological and business model innovation. The World Economic Forum provides the Community with a platform to engage with public and private sector leaders and to contribute new solutions to overcome current crises and build future resiliency.
Verena Kuhn, Head of the Global Innovators Community, World Economic Forum, says: “The World Economic Forum is happy to have Avanci continue its engagement with the Forum by joining our Global Innovators community. Including new, innovative voices is essential in the work we do at the Forum, and we look forward to how Avanci’s expertise will continue to add to our projects, dialogues and platforms.”
Kasim Alfalahi, founder and CEO of Avanci, says: “We are excited to continue our journey with World Economic Forum as part of its Global Innovators Community, having been recognized as a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum in 2020. Our continuing vision is that sharing technology on a global scale should be simpler. We look forward to continuing to work with the Forum’s Platforms on key issues such as the Future of Mobility.”
Since being named a Technology Pioneer, the Avanci one-stop marketplace for connected vehicles has grown to more than 80 auto brands licensed to cellular patents from 52 licensors, with more than 100 million licensed vehicles on the world’s roads.
More information on the Global Innovators Community can be found here.
About the Forum:
The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests.
DALLAS, Texas, August 1, 2022 – Avanci announced that Marianne Frydenlund, a global leader in intellectual property licensing, has joined Avanci to develop and lead new programs for the Internet of Things (IoT) beyond the automotive industry.
Avanci was founded in 2016 with a vision of transforming how patent licensing is done in the IoT era. The Avanci program for connected vehicles now has 42 auto brands licensed to the 4G, 3G and 2G essential patents of 49 licensors, with more than 65 million licensed vehicles – around half of connected car shipments to date.
Marianne joins from Nordic Semiconductor, where she has most recently been Senior Vice President, Legal & Compliance, with responsibilities including patent licensing activities, having concluded several groundbreaking agreements.
Laurie Fitzgerald, Senior Vice President at Avanci said: “We are very excited to welcome Marianne to Avanci. Her expertise and enthusiasm will enable us to launch licensing programs for new categories of IoT products, building on the momentum of our existing program in the automotive industry, and working alongside our world-class team.”
Marianne Frydenlund, Vice President at Avanci, said: “I am excited at the opportunity to join Avanci and create new licensing programs for Avanci’s independent marketplace. My licensing experience over the past few years has sparked a desire to build new solutions that the whole industry can benefit from, and I look forward to working with the talented team at Avanci to bring new ideas to life.”
With a law degree from the University of Oslo in Norway, Marianne’s experience spans legal and commercial roles in several industries.
In the latest of our series of articles, we spotlight the innovation of DOCOMO, another of the licensors in our independent, Avanci marketplace.
One of the world’s largest mobile operators, DOCOMO is at the forefront of driving the evolution of wireless technology and creating the Internet of Things, with a long history of contributing to the development of wireless communications standards. In October 2018, DOCOMO joined the Avanci marketplace as a licensor.
We recently spoke to two DOCOMO inventors about their work – what inspires them to create fundamental technologies and their thoughts on future developments in the mobile communications work.
DOCOMO R&D Center, Yokosuka, Japan
Akihiro Higashi has worked for the company for more than three decades. His interest in mobile communications was sparked early on and he gained his amateur radio license when he was just 15 years old. He joined NTT from university in 1987 and began his research career on digital mobile communications, at a time when most networks were still analogue. When NTT DOCOMO was created in 1992, he moved to the new business to continue research on Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) networks, working on technical harmonization within Japan and also working with several European companies. DOCOMO’s W-CDMA was ultimately adopted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as a standard and it is also part of the UMTS 3G standard.Following the formation of the 3GPP, Higashi-san participated in further standardization efforts for a couple of years, before moving from the research organization to the terminal development section, where he was responsible for commercializing three types of W-CDMA terminals during 2002.
With more than 80 patents to his name, he moved to DOCOMO’s intellectual property department in 2003, where he was involved in establishing the ‘Platform W-CDMA’ patent pool with other patent owners, such as, Mitsubishi Electric and Siemens. In 2010, he was among five NTT DOCOMO inventors who were recognized for their achievements by the Japanese Institute for Innovation and Invention. Since 2012, Higashi-san has been supporting DOCOMO’s patent licensing activities as a technical expert on W-CDMA and HSPA (High Speed Packet Access).
Lan Chen is President and CEO of DOCOMO Beijing Labs, where she leads the lab’s research on 5G evolution and 6G physical layer design, as well as on artificial intelligence including natural language processing and computer vision. Inspired by the early mobile devices that were beginning to appear when she graduated from high school, Dr. Chen decided to study mobile communications. Following her first degree in China, she studied for her master’s and PhD in Electronic Engineering at Kyoto University in Japan. After completing her PhD, in 1999 she joined the DOCOMO R&D Center in Yokosuka to begin her research career, focusing on wireless systems design for 4G/LTE.
DOCOMO Beijing Laboratory, China
In 2003, Dr. Chen returned to China to help setup DOCOMO’s Beijing Laboratory and for the next 10 years she served as director of its Wireless Systems Lab, leading the LTE research team. In 2013, she spent three years working on radio access network development, particularly for new functions of base station design. In July 2016, she returned to the research organization in her current role. In addition to being named as lead inventor on more than 130 patents, Dr. Chen has received external recognition from both the ITU Association of Japan and the Future Forum of China.
We asked both inventors about some of the key innovations that they had been responsible for, which have become essential patents licensed through the Avanci marketplace.
Higashi-san remembered that in early 1990s, Qualcomm published an IEEE paper on CDMA (which eventually became standardized as IS-95), outlining a technology that could achieve more user capacity than existing analogue or second-generation digital networks. As Japan’s leading mobile communications company, NTT DOCOMO saw a need to create a system that had more capacity and flexibility than IS-95 and began research on technologies that were ultimately standardized as W-CDMA.
One such innovation which he worked on was a novel approach to realize asynchronous systems between base stations. While IS-95 used GPS, DOCOMO wanted to be independent of the US government owned system. He and his colleagues began researching the use of longer scrambling codes to achieve asynchronous systems, though such an approach meant a longer synchronization time. Their innovation aimed to speed up the process of synchronization between base stations and terminals when they were first powered on, to improve performance for users.
He recalled long hours in the lab, using a lot of computer simulations to prove the potential of the system. Computers of that time were considerably below today’s performance, and their simulations required writing a lot of programs from scratch, which made it even more challenging, but after much effort, they were successful and their inventions became part of the W-CDMA standard and were widely adopted in the industry.
Dr. Chen’s 4G research focus was on improving the quality of experience and service for users. She identified that one area for focus was radio resource management for reducing interference between cells, so that the data rate for users could be improved. In 2001 she proposed and filed patents on an approach for intercell coordination, a novel idea which was hard to implement at the time. With progress in the network and the processing capability of base stations, several years later, multi-cell coordination was adopted as an optional feature in release 11 of the LTE standard.
Research can often feel an isolated activity – we asked both inventors how it feels when an invention that they have been responsible for is adopted into standards and then used by others in their products. Higashi-san felt proud of DOCOMO’s achievements with W-CDMA and said he felt very fortunate to have had such a broad career, from his early days in research, through commercialization of products to his work now in supporting DOCOMO’s patent licensing business.
Celebrating the DOCOMO Beijing Laboratory’s 18th anniversary.
Dr. Chen feels a sense of achievement and satisfaction when her patents are certificated as standard essential and licensed by other companies. She reflected that, in the DOCOMO Beijing Labs, research work does not end with the publication of academic papers.
The team works to further refine their results to meet the requirements of LTE-A, 5G and 5G Advanced and then work with other companies through the standardization organizations to reach consensus and finally have the patented technology become standard essential patent (SEPs). She feels that researchers at DOCOMO recognize the significance of what they do, contributing to the improvement of people’s lives around the world, as well as providing a financial return to DOCOMO through licensing which in turn helps to ensure the sustainability of the company and their research.
On the topic of licensing, their colleague Yuichi Nakamura from the intellectual property team reflected that DOCOMO has supported patent pooling for many years, including through their efforts with W-CDMA, as pools can offer efficiency and transparency in the sharing of innovation with others. However, he noted that pool licensing in the smartphone market had been challenging, as it was difficult to get larger patent owners to join. By comparison, with Avanci, their efficient and transparent approach has solved the problem faced by others and led to the inclusion of patent owners including Ericsson, Nokia and Qualcomm. This gave DOCOMO confidence that the marketplace could be successful and so they joined Avanci. They believe that having a single platform with a large number of licensors actively engaged gives Avanci a strong advantage and has helped in attracting many auto brands as licensees.
Discussion turned to the future, and the areas which are a focus for further research. Dr. Chen outlined that DOCOMO Beijing Labs continue to focus on 5G Advanced, with Release 18 anticipated in 2022. Beyond that, her team is already working on 6G research in two dimensions – extreme high capacity and extreme wide coverage, including space, air, and sea in addition to terrestrial mobile communications. Across all these domains will be the growing importance of artificial intelligence.
Finally, we asked what advice the experts would have for young people considering their career path, perhaps who are interested in the future of communications. Higashi-san reflected on the importance of following your own interests – from his early days as a radio ham to a 30+ year career at DOCOMO, his curiosity for the topic of mobile communications has never diminished.
Dr. Chen echoed this and outlined what the future holds. 6G will contribute to the wellbeing of society, enabling the fusion of the cyber and physical worlds. Many new use cases will emerge, based on the evolution from 5G and AI and sensing, which will not only enhance user experiences, but also improve the quality of life and the efficiency of society. For those who want to help build a new and a wonderful society, she suggests following the brand slogan of DOCOMO Beijing Labs: “Live up to youth, Innovation never ends.”
Leading Chinese innovator expands Avanci marketplace to 39 patent owners
BEIJING & SHENZHEN, CHINA and DALLAS, TX, USA, December 2, 2020 – Avanci, the one-stop platform for licensing wireless technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT), today announced that TCL Communication has joined its 3G/4G licensing program, bringing the number of patent owners on the platform to 39. Avanci’s one-stop marketplace offers a license to the vast majority of 2G, 3G and 4G cellular standard essential patents for Internet of Things products and connected vehicles, through a single agreement with a transparent, fixed price royalty.
Kasim Alfalahi, founder and chief executive officer of Avanci, said: “We are delighted to welcome TCL Communication, a global smartphone industry leader, to Avanci, the latest of several leading Chinese innovators to join the platform. Avanci enables companies such as TCL Communication to earn a fair return on their R&D investments, through an efficient marketplace that balances the interests of patent owners and licensees around the world, enabling continued innovation.”
Karl YEH, General Counsel at TCL Communication, said: “We are pleased to join Avanci to offer our cellular essential patents through Avanci as an efficient way to license to IoT and automotive manufacturers. TCL Communication, with the support of Purplevine IP Group, continues to contribute to a healthy industry ecosystem through licensing of Standard Essential Patents (SEP) on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (FRAND) terms, and we are committed to innovating for The Creative Life.”
Avanci’s one-stop marketplace has transformed the way companies share technology by licensing intellectual property from many different patent holders in a single transaction. By streamlining the technology sharing process, Avanci is accelerating the growth of the Internet of Things by providing automotive and IoT manufacturers with an efficient and transparent way to access the wireless technology needed to bring their products online. 16 automotive brands are already licensed through Avanci, with more than 16 million licensed connected vehicles on the world’s roads. In 2020, the World Economic Forum named Avanci a Technology Pioneer for its work in accelerating innovation for the Internet of Things.
In August 2020, Avanci launched its 5G licensing program for IoT and automotive and looks forward to sharing more details in the coming months.
About TCL Communication
TCL Communication Technology Holdings Limited (TCL Communication) designs, manufactures and markets an expanding portfolio of mobile devices and services worldwide through a comprehensive portfolio that includes TCL and Alcatel branded products. The company’s products are sold in more than 160 countries throughout North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. Incorporated in Hong Kong, TCL Communication operates its own manufacturing and R&D centers worldwide. TCL Communication is the subsidiary of the TCL Electronics (1070.HK), one of the world’s fastest-growing consumer electronics companies and one of the world’s leading television and mobile device manufacturers. TCL Electronics specializes in the research, development and manufacturing of consumer electronics ranging from TVs, mobile phones, audio devices and smart home products as part of the company’s “AI x IoT” strategy. For more information, please visit its website: http://electronics.tcl.com.
Every year, we see the pace of technological innovation increase. Whether in mobile communications, automotive, artificial intelligence, blockchain or pharmaceuticals, there seems no end to the opportunities which technology will bring.
As industries converge, there remain some imperatives to ensure that innovation can continue. Those who create products and services need access to the intellectual property – mostly patents – of those who have built the technologies, while those who have invented those technologies need a fair return on their investment in innovation, to ensure that the creative cycle can continue.
At Marconi, we work where these two worlds converge, at the forefront of technological innovation. As an expert organization, trusted by patent owners and product creators alike, we believe there are topics that all those involved in the business of innovation need to consider. Over the coming months, we’ll be writing on topics at the intersection of intellectual property and business; offering our thoughts on the future of the sharing of technologies.
But first, I wanted to tell you a little bit about Marconi. In 2017, we recognized the need for a new approach to how technologies were shared. In the past, those who created the technologies and those who implemented them would negotiate individual patent licenses, involving many lengthy negotiations and high costs.
As we move to a world where evermore companies are creating products and services; a new approach is needed, and we established Marconi to transform patent licensing across different technologies and products. We now have four different companies, united by that shared vision:
Avanci is focused on licensing cellular standard essential patents in the Internet of Things and automotive markets, offering a one-stop license at a fixed price to the patents of 39 licensors. Fifteen automotive brands are already under license, with more than 16 million licensed connected vehicles on the world’s roads. Earlier this year, the World Economic Forum awarded Avanci among its Technology Pioneers for 2020, recognizing its work in accelerating innovation for the Internet of Things.
Velos Media licenses essential patents for the HEVC video codec standard, from six patent owners responsible for many of the most significant HEVC innovations. Velos Media has around 40 licensees, covering a significant share of the markets for HEVC capable set-top boxes and televisions, as well as other categories of HEVC capable products.
Teletry is focused on licensing The BlackBerry patent portfolio, one of the most valuable in the wireless telecommunications industry, spanning more than 38,000 patents and patent applications around the world. Teletry unlocks opportunities and creates value for BlackBerry and smartphone companies.
Innovius creates new ways to share patented inventions. We develop solutions that provide value for both product innovators and patent owners, bringing together portfolios for licensing as well as negotiating and administering license agreements. Our goal is to simplify licensing for patent owners and enable manufacturers to offer their products with confidence and minimal disruption.
Marconi supports all of these companies with a team of world class licensing experts. Our leaders include the former heads of intellectual property at companies such as Ericsson, Google, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments. Eleven of our people were recognized amongst this year’s IAM Strategy 300, which identifies the individuals who are leading the way in the development and implementation of strategies that maximise the value of IP portfolios.
The topics we will write about reflect the diversity of innovation that has enabled this new approach to sharing IP. I do hope you will find them interesting, perhaps thought provoking, but above all, useful. Stay tuned!
New automotive licensing program reviewed by U.S. Department of Justice
DALLAS, TX, July 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Avanci, the one-stop platform for licensing wireless technologies for the Internet of Things (IoT), today launches its 5G automotive licensing program. This important step comes as the auto industry works to develop the next generation of connected vehicles, ensuring that this technology can be shared efficiently and affordably.
5G connectivity will deliver significant value to the automotive sector, building on the use of previous standards in connected vehicles. This program, part of Avanci’s new 5G IoT platform, will enable patent owners and IoT and automotive companies to share 5G standard essential wireless patents in a single license.
The 5G platform builds on the unprecedented success of the Avanci marketplace, which transformed the licensing landscape by licensing the vast majority of the 2G, 3G, and 4G cellular essential patents in a single agreement at fixed, fair and transparent rates. Avanci is now the go-to global licensing platform for connected vehicles and other IoT devices, spanning 38 patent owners and with 14 automotive brands as licensees.
The 5G automotive program was reviewed by the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) Antitrust Division. In its Business Review Letter, published on July 28, Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division of the DoJ, said: “In sum, the proposed 5G Platform has the potential to yield efficiencies by reducing transaction costs and streamlining licensing for connected vehicles. Together these efficiencies may allow cellular standards-essential patent owners and vehicle manufacturers to focus resources elsewhere, such as investment in further research and development in emerging 5G technologies and applications. This possibility could enhance competition in these technologies, improve safety, and benefit American consumers.”
Kasim Alfalahi, founder and CEO of Avanci, says: “Through our one-stop Avanci marketplace we have licensed the vast majority of cellular standard-essential patents to millions of connected vehicles. 5G will power the IoT to expand to many new categories of connected products. As we begin operating our first 5G licensing program for connected vehicles, we will continue to transform how patent licensing is done.”
Avanci will now begin discussions with IoT device manufacturers, the auto industry and patent owners about streamlining the patent licensing process for 5G connected devices, as it has done for the previous technologies. Interested companies can contact Avanci via www.avanci.com.
This news follows the World Economic Forum naming Avanci as a 2020 Technology Pioneer, its selection of early to growth-stage companies that are poised to have a significant impact on business and society.
Notes to Editors
The Business Review Letter from the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) Antitrust Division on the Avanci 5G automotive licensing program can be found here.
Avanci’s one-stop platform simplifies the way IoT and automotive companies add connectivity to their products by offering the 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G cellular standard essential patents of many different patent owners in a single license agreement.
By streamlining technology sharing through an efficient and transparent marketplace, Avanci is accelerating the growth of the IoT. Avanci’s existing marketplace today includes 38 patent licensors and 14 licensees for 2G, 3G and 4G technologies.
Avanci, a leader in enabling the sharing of technologies used by connected devices, was selected among hundreds of candidates as one of the World Economic Forum’s “Technology Pioneers”. The Avanci one-stop marketplace licenses intellectual property from many different patent holders in a single transaction, enabling product creators to bring connected devices to market faster.
The World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers are early to growth-stage companies from around the world that are involved in the design, development and deployment of new technologies and innovations, and are poised to have a significant impact on business and society. Technology Pioneers community is an integral part of the larger Global Innovators community of start-ups at the World Economic Forum.
Following its selection as Technology Pioneer, Kasim Alfalahi, founder and CEO of Avanci will be invited to participate at World Economic Forum activities, events and discussions throughout the year. Avanci will also contribute to Forum initiatives over the next two years, working with policymakers and private sector leaders to help define the global agenda on key issues.
Susan Nesbitt, Head of the Global Innovators Community, World Economic Forum, says: “We’re excited to welcome Avanci to our 20th cohort of Technology Pioneers. Avanci and its fellow pioneers are developing cutting edge technologies all over the world. Beyond their innovations, these firms are contributing greatly to improving the state of the world.”
Kasim Alfalahi, founder and CEO of Avanci, says: “We’re proud to be recognized as a technology pioneer by the World Economic Forum. Our vision is that sharing technology on a global scale for the Internet of Things should be simpler. We enable companies using the technologies to become licensed easily and at a fair price, accelerating IoT innovation for all. We look forward to contributing to the Forum dialogues on IoT.”
This year’s cohort selection marks the 20th anniversary of the Tech Pioneers community. Throughout its 20-year run, many Technology Pioneers have continuously contributed to advancement in their industries while some have even gone on to become household names. Past recipients include Airbnb, Google, Kickstarter, Mozilla, Palantir Technologies, Spotify, TransferWise, Twitter and Wikimedia.
2020 Tech Pioneer firms are shaping the future by advancing technologies such as AI, IoT, robotics, blockchain, biotechnology and many more. The diversity of these companies extends to their leadership as well, as over 25% of 2020 Tech Pioneers are female led. The firms also come from regions all around the world, extending their community far beyond Silicon Valley.
Technology Pioneers have been selected based on the community’s selection criteria, which includes innovation, impact and leadership as well as the company’s relevance with the World Economic Forum’s Platforms.
DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Avanci announced the addition of Acer, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Intellectual Discovery and Longhorn IP to its licensing platform bringing the total number of patent owners participating in the platform to 35. The complete cellular standard essential patent portfolios of these four companies, which include many 2G, 3G, and 4G standard essential patents, will now be available through Avanci’s one-stop marketplace. Avanci’s platform can now offer a license to the vast majority of cellular standard essential patents for the Internet of Things products in a single agreement.
“The addition of these four new patent owners to the Avanci platform solidifies Avanci as a one-stop licensing solution for the Internet of Things and the automotive industry,” said Kasim Alfalahi, founder and chief executive officer of Avanci. “We have transformed the licensing landscape by licensing the vast majority of the 2G, 3G, and 4G cellular essential patents in a single agreement. Avanci is streamlining the way companies share technology, providing an efficient solution that balances the interests of patent owners and IoT licensees, and fostering continued innovation.”
Avanci’s one-stop marketplace simplifies the way companies share technology by licensing intellectual property from many different patent holders in a single transaction. By streamlining the technology sharing process, Avanci is accelerating the growth of the Internet of Things by providing IoT manufacturers with an efficient and transparent way to access the wireless technology needed to bring their products online.
DALLAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Avanci announced the addition of Orange, one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators, to its licensing platform bringing the total number of patent owners participating in the platform to 31. Orange’s cellular standard essential patents will now be available through Avanci’s one-stop marketplace.
“Orange’s participation – along with the participation of eight more network operators in seven countries — demonstrates Avanci’s shared commitment with the telecom industry to simplify the patent licensing process for the automotive industry and make standardized technology more widely available,” said Kasim Alfalahi, founder and chief executive officer of Avanci. “Our one-stop marketplace is transforming the licensing landscape by providing a solution that balances the interests of patent owners and automotive licensees. This makes licensing more efficient, increases transparency, fosters continued innovation, and streamlines technology sharing for everyone involved.”
“Joining the Avanci licensing platform illustrates our desire to value all our investments, intellectual property included. In the development of 5G technologies to the closest industrial applications and their ecosystems, connected cars areas and IoT are among the most promising,” said Lyse Brillouet, VP Intellectual Property and Licensing of Orange.
Avanci’s one-stop marketplace simplifies the way companies share technology by licensing intellectual property from many different patent holders in a single transaction. By streamlining the technology sharing process, Avanci is accelerating the growth of the Internet of Things by providing IoT manufacturers with an efficient and transparent way to access the wireless technology needed to bring their products online.
DALLAS, TEXAS — Avanci, today, announced the addition of three new patent owners — Fujitsu Limited, Innovative Sonic, and Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) — to its licensing platform, bringing the total number of patent owners on the Avanci licensing platform to 24. The three companies own patent portfolios comprising a multitude of standard essential patents that allow mobile devices to connect to the internet and enable mobile communications spanning 2G, 3G, and 4G, technologies.
“We are excited to have Fujitsu, Innovative Sonic and NTT join the Avanci platform,” said Kasim Alfalahi, founder and chief executive officer of Avanci. “With the addition of our newest patent owners, Avanci is continuing to drive value for IoT licensees by offering license rights at a fair, flat rate that will not increase over the term of the license, even as the number of patent owners in our platform continues to grow.”
The Avanci platform simplifies the way companies share technology by licensing intellectual property from many different patent holders in a single transaction. By streamlining the technology sharing process, Avanci is accelerating the growth of the Internet of Things by providing IoT manufacturers with an efficient and transparent way to access the wireless technology needed to bring their products online.
Akihiro Higashi has worked for the company for more than three decades. His interest in mobile communications was sparked early on and he gained his amateur radio license when he was just 15 years old. He joined NTT from university in 1987 and began his research career on digital mobile communications, at a time when most networks were still analogue. When NTT DOCOMO was created in 1992, he moved to the new business to continue research on Wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) networks, working on technical harmonization within Japan and also working with several European companies. DOCOMO’s W-CDMA was ultimately adopted by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as a standard and it is also part of the UMTS 3G standard.Following the formation of the 3GPP, Higashi-san participated in further standardization efforts for a couple of years, before moving from the research organization to the terminal development section, where he was responsible for commercializing three types of W-CDMA terminals during 2002.
Lan Chen is President and CEO of DOCOMO Beijing Labs, where she leads the lab’s research on 5G evolution and 6G physical layer design, as well as on artificial intelligence including natural language processing and computer vision. Inspired by the early mobile devices that were beginning to appear when she graduated from high school, Dr. Chen decided to study mobile communications. Following her first degree in China, she studied for her master’s and PhD in Electronic Engineering at Kyoto University in Japan. After completing her PhD, in 1999 she joined the DOCOMO R&D Center in Yokosuka to begin her research career, focusing on wireless systems design for 4G/LTE.
