The Asia Times Reports China Already Developing 6G Networks

January 9, 2019 – I’m back. Happy New Year to my readers. The controversy over the equipment suppliers to 5G networks and the security implications of using Huawei as a vendor has made headlines in the last month. An executive of the company while making a connecting flight in Vancouver’s airport was arrested and detained by Canadian police at the request of the United States seeking her extradition. It seems Huawei, right or wrong, is now a pawn in the fight between the United States and China for leadership in telecommunications. And as for the imminent extradition of Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei’s founder, Ren Zhengfei, a former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army, it seems that the legalities will drag on for a considerable time.

But none of these legal maneuvers by the United States can stop China’s efforts to become the leading technology provider in the telecommunications space giving American and European firms a run for their money.

The latest news reported by Frank Chen, in the Asia Times, describes research being done at the Southeast University, Nanjing, to develop 6G wireless systems technologies even while 5G has yet to be rolled out globally. Chen reports that since 2015 China has been outspending the United States by $24 billion USD in building its wireless communication infrastructure. Telecommunications companies in China have erected 350,000 new cellular communication towers versus the U.S. with 30,000 in support of the country’s 5G rollout.

When will the first signs of 6G emerge from China? As early as 2020 when the first trials will begin to work out the kinks in the technology. China may even stop 5G rollout if it can accelerate 6G development even sooner.

In North America, telecommunications companies talk about 6G being at least a decade away. These types of pronouncements are a bit disconcerting to say the least. But work in Finland at the University of Oulu is focused on what it calls the 6Genesis project where its researchers talk about 6G emerging by the mid-2020s. The Finns are spending about 250 million Euros on 6G research. Meanwhile, Qualcomm, Dell, Intel, and Ericsson have committed more than $326 billion USD to 5G research and development and something they call 5G+, a precursor to what could become 6G.

Compared to 5G which eclipses 4G network speeds of 1 Gigabit per second by a factor of 10, 6G will deliver speeds of 1 Terabyte per second. So what will that mean for we cellular users? Well other than the speed thing, it means that rather than billions of devices being interconnected in the Internet of Things (IoT), we are talking about devices in the trillions. It means artificial intelligence applications will become even better in support of initiatives such as the development of autonomous vehicles, smart cities, smart roads, smart energy, and virtual and augmented reality may bring us closer to the Star Trek holodeck. It will also mean feeds and speeds can vary with a move away from the one-speed-fits-all pipe we have today. That will mean a more nuanced Internet that fits the specific feeds and speeds needs of every application.

With 6G the world will become one giant telecommunications network from the depths of the ocean to near-Earth orbit. The fact that the Chinese research community is hellbent to make this a reality shows just how far the country has come since the passing of Mao Zedong.