On Tuesday 3rd March, Takehiro Nakamura (NTT DoCoMo Inc.) was elected for a two year term as Chairman of the Radio Access Networks (RAN) Technical Specifications Group in 3GPP.

The election was achieved by acclamation, which is recognition of Mr. Nakamura’s standing in the 3GPP community. He is currently the RAN Vice-Chairman and is the leader of the RAN support Working Group in ARIB.

François Courau (Alcatel Lucent) the out-going RAN chairman commented;

“This is a fine result. Takehiro Nakamura brings a wealth of experience to the Chairmanship and a level of commitment that will ensure that the group can deal with the ever increasing demands from industry”.

Mr. Courau stands down after having presided over the successful completion of specifications for the UMTS network and its evolution towards broadband access using HSPA and future LTE interfaces. He will continue in the chair during this weeks meeting in Biarritz, and will formally hand over to Mr. Nakamura at the 3GPP Project Coordination Group meeting in Kyoto on the 27th April 2009, where the formal appointment takes place.

Over the next few days, the Core Networks and Terminals (CT) TSG and the Service & Systems Aspects (SA) TSGs will also elect their leadership for the next two year term.

All of the election results from TSG#43 will be posted at http://www.3gpp.org/Elections

Note. TSG RAN also elected the following Vice Chairmen on the 3rd and 4th March 2009:

Vice Chairmanship

	Name	Company / Partner
	Mr Marc GRANT	AT&T / ATIS
	Mr Han VAN BUSSEL	T-Mobile International AG / ETSI
	Mr Hai TANG	China Mobile/ CCSA

(Appointment by the 3GPP PCG will follow in April 2009)