“5G has been over-hyped as if it can do anything.”
01:44
China built six times as many 5G towers in three months as the US did in two years
China built six times as many 5G towers in three months as the US did in two years
As mobile communications leapt from 2G to 3G, users could send not only text messages but also pictures and music, spurring the growth of mobile versions of chat apps like QQ, games, and streaming media.
The advent of the 4G era saw the rise of mobile payments along with apps like WeChat and Douyin.
However, the killer application for the 5G era has yet to become a reality.
“One of the main reasons is that 5G technical standards still do not meet the requirements of vertical industry applications,” Wang said, according to the Yicai report.
“6G, which is currently under development, is expected to revolutionize vertical industry issues that 5G cannot adequately address.”
He said that although 5G latency (the delay in data transmission) is already very low, it still does not meet the requirements of some industry applications.
The next generation, 6G networks, are expected to be 100 times faster than 5G, reducing network latency from milliseconds to microseconds.
04:12
How Huawei’s use of 5G and AI is transforming China’s coal mining industry
How Huawei’s use of 5G and AI is transforming China’s coal mining industry
Many countries, including the United States and Japan, are moving to be at the forefront of 6G development.
The Federal Communications Commission has opened up terahertz frequencies, which are crucial for 6G, for experimentation, and the US government is also working with the private sector on 6G research and development and developing standards.
Japan is partnering with companies such as NTT Docomo and Sony to establish key technologies around 2025 and plan to start offering communications services “beyond 5G” by 2030.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, an agency under the United Nations, 6G can lead to developments in immersive communications, massive connectivity, extremely high reliability and low latency, the integration of AI and communications, the integration of sensing and communications, and ubiquitous connectivity.
6G networks will deeply integrate the physical and digital environments, creating a new world of intelligent connectivity, Wang said at the Beijing conference.
He said revolutionary applications could enable services such as holographic communication.
Such technology could “enable two people separated by thousands of kilometers to communicate directly over a mobile network, greatly enhancing the sense of immersion and making collaboration, distance learning, interactive applications and social interaction a reality.”
“Another example is digital twins, which simulate human behavior and thinking and enable interaction with real humans,” Wang said, according to the report.
“Doctors can use digital twin technology to create human body models for organ testing and simulate patients’ physiological conditions, improving medical efficiency.”
