Moving beyond the technology frontiers within the 6G

The project Legitimation of newness and its impact on the EU agenda for change (LNETN), with over four million euros’ budget, belongs to the Innovative Training Networks of EU’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions. The University of Oulu in Finland, the Aalborg University in Denmark, the Halmstad University in Sweden, and the University of Glasgow in Scotland form the project consortium. Moreover, several associated industrial stakeholder partners are also involved, including Bittium and Nokia in Finland.

Altogether fifteen early-stage researcher positions are offered by the project, of which the University of Oulu hosts four. One of these positions is being held by Oxana Gisca. Her research topic is ”Moving beyond the technology frontiers ”.

Oxana received her MSc in Law at the University of the European Studies of Moldova. She has an extensive professional background, knowledge and expertise to implement the international standards. She has successfully managed teams and projects and has exercised leadership in its home country and at the regional level, making important contribution to promoting financial integrity, developing cooperation and sharing of expertise.

Oxana has an international credibility and authority, acting as the European Regional representative of Europe II Region of EGMONT GROUP of Financial Intelligence Units as well as the Vice president of the Conference of the Parties member of the Convention CETs 198, of the Council of Europe.

In her research, Oxana explores how adoption and legitimation of new innovations in virtual technology are achieved by moving beyond current frontiers of organizational practice, consumer experience, service delivery processes and social networking. More specifically, she will explore and understand the emergence of legitimacy of new business models and ecosystems within the 6G technology context.

In her research she emphasizes the prominent challenges and uncertainties within telecommunications from regulatory, technical, and business dimensions. Her aim is to develop a theoretical approach that combines business model and ecosystem views for researching legitimacy and apply approach for researching the empirical context of telecommunications.

Emergence of the business model legitimacy in progressing technology ecosystems

Emergence takes place in all aspects of our life, nature, and the world. It is a driver that generates transformation, change and appearance of newness. The concept of emergence is used in a variety of scientific fields and frameworks to denote a wider range of phenomenon.

Stephen C. Peppe defines emergence “as a phenomenon with three criteria of change, first is chance occurrence, second is a “shift”, a change in which one characteristic replace another, and thirdly is emergence which is cumulative change, a change in which certain characteristics supervene upon other characteristics” (Stephen C. Peppe Apr. 29, 1926).

The example of future networks that will come with innovation, integration, and localization, and integrate sensing and imaging functions into its system design to provide ultra-high data rates and capacity, represents the emergence of a “cumulative change.”

Holographic communication, future decomposed handsets and wearable devices, and other novel human-machine interfaces with immersive multi-sensory experience are changes in which certain characteristics supervene upon other characteristics and those changes open a new door for use case and business innovation.

The emergence of the technology “of robots that are expected to be increasingly present in everyday life, and their usage will no longer be restricted to optimization and automation purposes in the industry will be expanded to various other areas” (Hexa-X project, 2020), will trigger new ways of modus operandi, new social acceptance strategies, and adoption of new business models.

Challenges, regulation, and policy frameworks

Gaining legitimacy becomes imperative for developing emerging business models that embrace new 6G technology. The new 6G technology will bring about fundamental structural changes to the mobile ecosystem, calls for novel models of ecosystem governance and regulation that highlight privacy, security, environmental sustainability and societal resilience (Ahokangas, Yrjölä, Matinmikko-Blue, Seppänen & Koivumäki, 2020).

The emergence of technology increasingly depends on innovation ecosystems and frequently involves actors from industry, policy makers, and academia.

Regulation differs across countries, also in Europe. Telecom regulation in the EU member states is quite complex and undertaken on the national, European, and international levels. The EU regulatory framework for electronic communications is formulated as a set of policy objectives, which national regulatory agencies implement with the help of instruments defined at the European level.

The current landscape for telecommunication regulation is evolving at the EU level. The member states are currently implementing the provisions of the EECC Code, relaying on related hard law and soft law legal provisions.

What regulatory solutions can be developed for emerge 6G technology operators are now on the agenda of countries that aim to promote innovation in the context of mobile telecommunication. Reviewing the evolution of the European telecommunication framework through the lens of principles that expand the Europeans values is a powerful way of illustrating the shift of the parameters of the regulatory in promoting European values.

Oxana is employed by the University of Oulu’s Martti Ahtisaari Institute in Finland. Her supervisors are Petri Ahokangas and Gillian Gordon.