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Some of the world’s largest telecommunications and technology companies told CNBC that the next generation of mobile internet after 5G, called 6G, is likely to come out in 2030.
But the top bosses also said the tech industry shouldn’t make too much of a fuss about it lest consumers get confused. Companies are also thinking about how to monetize the billions of dollars they have spent on 5G in recent years.
“We have not finished implementing 5G yet,” Ha Min Yong, director of development at SK Telecom, told CNBC last week. “I don’t think I’m ready to talk seriously about 6G yet…it’s a bit too early.”
Mobile World Congress, the world’s largest trade fair for the mobile industry, was held last week in Barcelona. It was all about 6G, and companies from all over the world talked about the latest technology.
5G adoption remains low
In 2019, mobile phone companies in China, South Korea, and the US started using 5G. The technology is the next step in mobile internet after 4G, which promises much faster speeds.
But consumer penetration remains low. Strategy Analytics says that only one in seven people globally use a 5G smartphone right now.
The telecommunications industry, on the other hand, is marketing 5G not just as a consumer product with faster download speeds, but also as a network that could support new technologies like driverless cars or unmanned aerial taxis. It does this because it has less lag than 4G. This means it takes much less time for devices to communicate with each other, which is important when data needs to be sent quickly.
But even as carriers have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into 5G networks, they have struggled to see a return. Analysts said 5G could soon have real money-making potential.
“5G adoption is accelerating in most countries where it has been deployed, including India, which is rapidly building 5G networks,” Richard Webb, director of network infrastructure at CCS Insight, told CNBC in an email. “In the end, most of the potential is in the enterprise markets and industrial segments,” he added.
So why is the industry talking about 6G?
Standards are needed for telecommunication networks. At best, these are rules for how the technology works and how it can work with other technologies around the world. The term “interoperability” means that two or more systems can work together.
For these standards to be developed and finalized, it takes a few years and a lot of work by companies, universities and industry groups. That’s why people in the business world think about it so much.
Standards-setting groups like 3GPP, which helped with 5G, are already working on 6G standards. But right now, it’s still in the early stages.
In an interview with CNBC last week, Telenor CEO Sigve Brekke said: “We are still doing research on 6G.”
Telecom industry executives who spoke to CNBC said the key would be to focus on 5G rollout while doing research on 6G. Howard Watson, who is in charge of technology at BT, says that people might get confused when talking about 6G, and there are still things to improve with 5G.
“However, what I would say is that we as an industry need to stop confusing customers by talking about Gs because the next thing they will ask me is when is 6G coming? Watson told CNBC last week: “I don’t see any use cases that we can’t do today that we can’t do with 5G or its next steps.”
“I don’t want to wait for this new thing called 6G to confuse consumers and businesses.”
Many of the 5G networks we have now are built on 4G equipment and technology. But now, what carriers call “standalone 5G” is being rolled out. That will use a different technology than 4G and help 5G reach its full potential.
There will also be more software running 5G networks to help with things like managing data traffic and making it more efficient.
In an interview with CNBC last week, Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark said: “There is still a step before 6G, and it will be called advanced 5G. It will be on the market in a couple of years.”
Lundmark said that would help make technologies like augmented reality and virtual reality more fun and even help drones fly.
Lundmark said: “There is no reason to wait for 6G.”
So what is 6G?
Since 6G standards haven’t been set yet, it’s hard to say what the technology will look like right now.
“As operators, we need to at least begin to pinpoint what will and won’t be,” said Watson, BT’s CTO. That work has only just begun, so it’s too early to tell.”
He also said that 6G would make the mobile network more secure and add more features that use artificial intelligence.
Nokia CEO Lundmark said the 6G network would “act like a great big sensor” that could determine the size, speed and direction of a moving object. This feature could help make factories and even cars that don’t need drivers.
6G in 2030
Several executives, including the CEO of Nokia, said that 6G would be available by 2030.
Nick McKeown, a senior vice president of Intel’s Network and Edge Group, told CNBC that he believes the standards for 6G will be set a few years earlier, in 2025.
“So the work on the standards is continuing right now on these standards. “There’s a little bit of competition for position on what the technology will be,” McKeown said in an interview last week. “There is some testing and testing of different technologies.”
BT’s CTO said that the next generation of mobile networks is usually deployed around the Olympic Games. He thinks 6G will come out when the Olympic Games are held in Brisbane, Australia in 2032.
Neil Mawston, chief executive of market research firm Strategy Analytics, said the first smartphone with 6G capabilities will be out in 2029.
Mawston said: “The 6G race is on.”
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Categories: Technology
Source: vtt.edu.vn