12 The meeting rhythm — plenary, working-group week and bis

12.1 Why the calendar is the thing to learn first

Everything in How a radio feature travels from a question to a rule happens at a meeting or not at all. A change request that misses its meeting waits three months. A liaison statement sent to a group that has already met waits until the group meets again.

So the shape of the calendar is not administrative trivia. It is the clock speed of the whole standard, and knowing it is the difference between "this will be settled soon" and "this will be settled next year".

12.2 The plenary: four times a year

The RAN plenary meetings on record run: 9 June 2025 in Prague 3GPPRAN#108, 15 September 2025 in Beijing 3GPPRAN#109, 8 December 2025 in Baltimore 3GPPRAN#110, 9 March 2026 in Fukuoka 3GPPRAN#111 and 8 June 2026 in Singapore 3GPPRAN#112.

Four a year, usually four days, and it moves around the world. The next two are already booked: Madrid on 14 September 2026 3GPPRAN#113 and Boston on 7 December 2026 3GPPRAN#114.

The document load is heavy for a decision meeting. RAN#112 carried 743 documents 3GPPRAN#112, RAN#111 827 3GPPRAN#111 and RAN#110 910 3GPPRAN#110.

12.3 The working-group week: five groups, one place

The five groups that still meet do it together. RAN1#125, RAN2#134, RAN3#132, RAN4#119 and RAN5#111 all ran from 18 to 22 May 2026, in China 3GPPRAN1#125 3GPPRAN2#134 3GPPRAN3#132 3GPPRAN4#119 3GPPRAN5#111.

Five days, one venue, five groups in parallel rooms. The same thing happened in February: all five met from 9 February 2026 in the Gothenburg area 3GPPRAN1#124 3GPPRAN2#133 3GPPRAN3#131 3GPPRAN4#118 3GPPRAN5#110.

Co-locating them is what makes a liaison statement cheap. A question raised in RAN1 on the Tuesday can have a draft reply from RAN2 in the same building on the Thursday — R1-2603888 and R2-2602996 are exactly that pair, from the May week.

It is also what makes a delegate's week hard: a company with one expert in two subjects has to choose a room.

12.4 The extra week: "bis"

Between two ordinary working-group weeks there is an extra one, written "bis". RAN1, RAN2, RAN3 and RAN4 all met again from 13 April 2026 in Saint Julian's 3GPPRAN1#124-bis 3GPPRAN2#133-bis 3GPPRAN3#131-bis 3GPPRAN4#118-bis.

The bis week is a full meeting, not a catch-up. RAN1's carried 1729 documents 3GPPRAN1#124-bis against 1688 at the May meeting 3GPPRAN1#125, and RAN4's carried 1952 3GPPRAN4#118-bis.

RAN5 does not take it. Its meetings run 9 February 2026 3GPPRAN5#110 and then 18 May 2026 3GPPRAN5#111, with nothing in April.

12.5 The sequence within a quarter

Put the May and June dates side by side and the design is obvious.

When	What
9 February 2026	working-group week, five groups
9 March 2026	plenary RAN#111
13 April 2026	bis week, four groups
18 May 2026	working-group week, five groups
8 June 2026	plenary RAN#112

The plenary sits three weeks after the working-group week 3GPPRAN1#125 3GPPRAN#112. That gap is the point: the groups finish arguing, agree what they have, package it, and the plenary decides on work that is a few weeks old rather than a few months.

The bis week sits in the middle of the long gap between two plenaries, which is where a study that needs several passes gets them.

12.6 What a plenary agenda actually holds

Four documents will orient you in any plenary, and all four exist for every one.

The agenda, written by the chair: RP-260830 for RAN#112.

The report of the previous meeting, written by the 3GPP secretariat: RP-260831, the draft report of RAN#111, tabled at RAN#112.

A status report per working group, filed by each group's chair: RP-260832 for RAN1 and RP-260834 for RAN2.

Whatever is being decided — the packs, the new work item descriptions, the agreed study report drafts. RP-260923 and RP-260870 are two from that same meeting.

One level down, a working group has the same first document: R1-2603480 is the draft agenda of RAN1#125. And a group writes its own minutes — R5-261705 is RAN5's record of its previous meeting, filed at the next one.

12.7 One group across three meetings

Take RAN1's last three and the rhythm becomes concrete.

Meeting	Dates	Where	Documents	In the room
RAN1#124	9 February 2026	Gothenburg area	1744	699
RAN1#124-bis	13 April 2026	Saint Julian's	1729	648
RAN1#125	18 May 2026	China	1688	710

Those come from the three meeting entries 3GPPRAN1#124, 3GPPRAN1#124-bis and 3GPPRAN1#125. The bis meeting sits in the same range as the other two on both measures — it is a full meeting in every sense.

The plenary's own attendance moves in a narrower band: 419 at Prague 3GPPRAN#108, 350 at Beijing 3GPPRAN#109, 321 at Baltimore 3GPPRAN#110, 376 at Fukuoka 3GPPRAN#111 and 396 at Singapore 3GPPRAN#112.

RAN5 is the one group whose calendar does something else. Besides skipping the bis week, it met in Dallas on 17 November 2025 3GPPRAN5#109; the register holds no 2025 meeting of the other four groups, so it cannot say whether that week lined up with theirs.

Its attendance also jumped: 171 at Dallas 3GPPRAN5#109 and 170 in Gothenburg 3GPPRAN5#110, then 274 in China 3GPPRAN5#111. The record shows the jump and says nothing about the cause.

12.8 RAN6's calendar

RAN6 last met on 26 October 2020, for a single day, by telephone 3GPPRAN6#18-Decision Teleconference. Before that, 6 August 2020 3GPPRAN6#17-Decision Teleconference and 7 May 2020 3GPPRAN6#16-Decision Teleconference, both also one-day teleconferences.

Two of those three carried no documents at all 3GPPRAN6#18-Decision Teleconference 3GPPRAN6#17-Decision Teleconference. They were decision calls, and then the group stopped.

That is what "closed" looks like in the calendar: not an announcement, a last entry.

12.9 How much of this is on this machine

Only 23 RAN meeting folders are mirrored here, the most recent ones ^[1]. The meeting database goes much further back than the files do.

So a meeting can be listed, counted and dated in this course while none of its documents are readable locally. Never assume a document is on this machine unless you have opened it.

Where it definitely is reachable is on 3gpp.org: a meeting has a portal page addressed by its meeting number ^[2], and its document list has its own address on the same portal ^[3].

12.10 Where this meets the rest of the course

The documents that fill these weeks are How a radio feature travels from a question to a rule; the people in the rooms are counted in What the numbers say about the size and shape of each group.

How to walk a meeting from a cold start, and which address to open first, is How to follow TSG RAN yourself, from a cold start.