It has been barely two years since 5G was commercialized but plans to bring 6G technology to the masses are well underway in various countries.
This is being done in tandem with the expansion of 5G networks around the world with telecom operators and telecom equipment vendors involved in 5G rollout also developing the next generation of communication technology, 6G.
As part of US President Joe Biden’s June visit to the UK, the US and the UK announced an updated Atlantic Charter, thus agreeing to collaborate on research and development of 6G.
The UK and USA are not the only parties investing in 6G technology, LG Electronics has also announced that they successfully transmitted wireless signals in the 6G terahertz frequency band, with a transmission distance of more than 100 metres.
LG mentioned that the transmission was carried out jointly with Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the largest applied scientific research institution in Europe.
This was all done on July 13 this year, where a data signal was sent from a slightly higher building and the data received in another building 100 metres away. The data was received smoothly with no packet loss or disturbance of some sort.
What are the speeds promised?
Most of us are still trying to wrap our heads around the speeds being delivered by 5G, yet 6G is faster, much faster than 5G technology. 6G technology promises speeds of up to 1 terabyte per second(1,000,000 Mbps).
This, in plain language, is basically speeds that are a thousand times faster than 5G technology, or the equivalent of downloading 142 hours of Netflix movies in one second.
To go together with the significantly higher speeds, 6G will also be more responsive with lower latencies because of using higher transmission frequencies(95 GHz to 3 THz) than 5G networks.
The lower latency also opens a wide range of applications, from self-driven cars and image-guided surgeries where precision and immediate feedback is paramount.
Applications of the next generation of communication technology
While 5G technology has not yet been optimally used to its maximum capacity, 6G technology will open even more doors and with greater precision as to what we can achieve, namely;
- Opening the possibility of collecting data and responding in real-time in areas such as machine learning.
- 6G could provide the throughput, reliability and security required in situations where subnetworks are required, such as in precision healthcare.
- Robots will generally become part of our everyday life, and they will be given more complex tasks that require tight interaction with 6G.
- Much faster transmission speeds could make fully immersive sports possible, basically taking ideas such as Google Stadia to the next level, as well as the ability to connect medical experts to their patients immediately due to the ultra-low latency despite being in different geographical locations.
Realistic timelines for the maturity of 6G technology
Despite the progress being made in developing 6G technology, there is still a long way before it is commercialized. Ericsson will only start making 6G equipment in 2024 while Huawei, on the other hand, plans to launch its 6G network in 2030.
The 6G speeds would be welcome now, but since we have only just started experiencing 5G speeds in a few areas in Kenya, including Nairobi and Kakamega, we can not get greedy but rather wait patiently for its eventual rollout sometime in the next decade.
