When should we start talking about 6G cellular?

Is it too soon?

We really haven’t begun to understand the impact of 5G on our lives, and there are already people talking about 6G. There are no standards yet, but there are a few things that will most likely happen. 6G will probably be faster, and it will probably use even higher frequencies than 5G. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess.

First, let’s talk about 5G

If you travel across the internet, you’ll find plenty of articles that suggest that 5G is some sort of “broken promise.” Many people, myself included, touted 5G as a solution that would allow for augmented reality, self-driving cars, robot maids, and pretty much anything else from science fiction that you can think of. So far, that hasn’t happened. But realistically we’re still in pretty early days with 5G. 5G, like literally everything else, got pushed back during 2020 and 2021 for various reasons. We’re only now seeing wide implementation of mid-band and millimeter-band 5G, which is what will allow us to live that Jetsons life.

There’s still a lot more life in 5G, and regardless of what you read, it’s not just “4G by another name.” It’s a completely different technology that will eventually blow way past what 4G is capable of. It hasn’t yet, just like a newborn baby hasn’t succeeded in business yet. Give it time.

What will 6G bring us?

All I can do, friends, is give you my best hopes. The first thing I want to point out is that 5G is more than fast enough for practically anything you’re going to do on your phone. It’s generally even fast enough for cloud gaming, and it’s going to get even better at that when it’s more widespread. So, I am hoping that 6G concentrates on industrial and domestic uses.

Here’s what I mean. I’d like to see 6G be a true replacement for wired internet, which would allow for real choice in most areas that are served by only one provider. I’d like to see it used for more remote control of machinery, which would make factories more flexible. There are a lot more things that can be done with wireless communication that still haven’t been tried yet.

Low-power 6G

I think that if you do it right, 6G could be great for medical use. Right now, we’re just starting to see low-power wireless applications in medicine. You can swallow a small transmitter and doctors can learn a lot about you in real time. Adding 6G to the mix could allow for all sorts of monitoring. At-risk seniors and others with challenges could be monitored so that staff can respond quickly when needed.

I’d also like to see low-power 6G used in other applications. Right now, you can get a device like a Tile or AirTag that helps you track anything you want. But, these devices need to find cell phones to communicate with close by. If you put an AirTag on an Arctic dogsled and set it out into the world, it’s not going to work. With 6G, it’s possible that it could.

Hybrid cellular and satellite

We’re just starting to see phones that can communicate with satellites in emergencies. 6G could be designed from the ground up to use satellite communication, whether it was low-earth-orbit satellites like Starlink or traditional communications satellites. This would allow people to use their phones anywhere on the planet, even if cellular service wasn’t available. If nothing else, it could be used more efficiently for emergencies.

But what will we get?

That’s the real question. 6G could be nothing but marketing hype. It could just be a theoretical speed improvement and nothing else. If you look at the evolution of Wi-Fi, you’ll see what I mean. A router from 15 years ago will give you enough speed to watch 4K over the internet. (There will be security issues, but that’s another point.) In the last 15 years there have been generation after generation of Wi-Fi standards and most of them don’t actually bring anything to the table other than just higher theoretical speeds. I hope 6G doesn’t go that way.

I guess we’ll all just have to wait and see. The best guess is that we’ll see early versions of the 6G standards in the next 2-3 years, meaning wide adoption of 6G around 2028-2030. Hopefully it all works out, but there’s nothing you or I can do either way.