Are you worried about 5G? China is already preparing for 6G

It is still too early to evaluate Tangible effects that 5G spread (The latest generation of mobile data transmission) is having an impact on society, but one thing is for sure: China has come out on top with one of the most significant technological challenges in recent years. The confirmation Bloomberg AnalysisAccordingly, the country has “the largest 5G footprint in the world”, while the Chinese giant Huawei “globally dominates other suppliers”.

In an attempt to correct what has certainly been tested as a crushing defeat, the United States is betting squarely on 6G, the additional generation of data transmission that currently only exists on a theoretical level: “This time we must not allow Consulting firm Frost & Sullivan, who also spoke to Bloomberg, said the opportunity to gain generational leadership is easily missed.

Combat allegations that came from the United States (including a memorable tweet with Former President Trump claimed You want “6G as soon as possible”, admit defeat), faced with a harsh reality: this new technology will not see the light of day until 2030, but today China already has a clear advantage in terms of the number of patents related to the core technologies of 6G.

Japanese financial newspaper Nikki Ha Analyze it More than 20 thousand patents, which indicates that more than 40% of these were deposited by Chinese companies. Despite US sanctions, Huawei is always in the lead, followed by state-owned companies such as Beijing State Grid Corporation (electrical services) and China Aerospace Science and Technology. Not only that: In November last year, China was the first country to test, via satellite, radio waves that could host 6G broadcasts, while Huawei opened a research center in Canada.

The hard run for the United States and Europe
So, the US target starts upward: the country filed 35.2% of patents on 6G technologies anyway and, exactly a year ago, debuted the Next G alliance (which includes Apple, Google, AT&T, Qualcomm, and others) for the purpose of “advancing leadership” in North America” ​​in data transmission technologies. In third place comes Japan with 9.9% of patents, followed by the European Union with 8.9%.

European efforts are led by the University of Oulu, Finland (a country that has always been a leader in mobile communications), which In 2018, he launched an eight-year program called 6 configuration$251 million thanks to Nokia’s contribution. The European Union, on the other hand, is directly responsible for research project Hexa-X, again with a significant contribution from Nokia and the participation of Ericsson, Intel, Telefonica, Tim and others.

Similar to what happened with 5G, China appears to be leading the shipment of new technology, closely followed by the United States, Europe and Japan in the role of potential troublemakers. But what should we expect from this next generation of communication? As for speed, we are talking about one Connection from 1 terabyte per second (for 10 GB from 5 GB and 300 MB from 4G) With a latency (i.e. the time required to connect two devices) of 0.1 milliseconds. It is a tenth of what is in 5G.

What changes from 5G to 6G
And what are we going to do with all this performance? Among the various examples we talk about virtual reality that can be used with high accuracy even on the go, di Connecting the human body to the Internet And our brains (a little as supposed Neuralink D Elon Mask), to finally give life to fully self-driving cars. These promises, however, appear In some cases to keep track of these We have already talked about 5G.

Another aspect that may not satisfy many has to do with the infrastructure needed to transmit the signal: being waves with a shorter range than 5G (on the order of terahertz), the signal propagation networks They should be, like Researchers say, “ultra-density”, that is, with multiple antennas installed not only on every street, but also in every building. And not only.

Obviously, this aspect will be analyzed from the point of view of health, but it can still increase more Panic often already It wraps (unjustifiably) 5G. However, there is still a long way to go by 2030: to be really disappointed (or worry about the possible repercussions), it’s certainly too early. Maybe.