“5G is being hyped as if it can do everything.”
01:44
China built six times as many 5G towers in three months as the US installed in two years
China built six times as many 5G towers in three months as the US installed in two years
When mobile communications made the leap from 2G to 3G, users were no longer limited to text messages, but could also send images and music. This has fueled the growth of mobile versions of chat apps such as QQ, gaming, and streaming media.
With the advent of the 4G era, mobile payments have flourished, along with apps such as WeChat and Douyin.
However, the killer applications of the 5G era have yet to materialize.
“One of the main reasons is that 5G technology standards still do not meet the requirements of vertical industrial applications,” Wang said, according to the Yicai report.
“6G, currently in development, is expected to revolutionize vertical industries to address problems that 5G cannot adequately address.”
He said that while 5G's latency, or data transmission delay, is already very low, it still does not meet the requirements of some industry applications.
Next-generation 6G networks are expected to be 100 times faster than 5G, reducing network latency from milliseconds to microseconds.
China started issuing 5G licenses to telecommunications companies in June 2019, and since then 3.65 million 5G base stations have been built, serving approximately 800 million 5G users nationwide.
04:12
How Huawei's use of 5G and AI will transform China's coal mining industry
How Huawei's use of 5G and AI will transform China's coal mining industry
Many countries, including the United States and Japan, are working to ensure they are at the forefront of 6G development.
The Federal Communications Commission has opened up spectrum in the terahertz range, which is important for 6G, for experimental use. The U.S. government is also working with the private sector on 6G research and development and setting standards.
Japan plans to work with companies such as NTT Docomo and Sony to establish key technologies around 2025 and begin offering “beyond 5G” communications services by 2030.
According to the International Telecommunication Union, an agency under the United Nations, 6G will bring about immersive communications, ultra-scale connectivity, extremely high reliability and low latency, integration of AI and communications, integration of sensing and communications, and ubiquitous connectivity. .
Wang told the Beijing conference that 6G networks will deeply integrate the physical and digital environments, creating a new world of intelligent connectivity.
He said innovative applications could enable services like holographic communications.
Such technologies “enable two people thousands of miles apart to interact face-to-face over mobile networks, greatly enhancing immersive experiences and enabling collaboration, distance learning, interactive applications, Social interaction can become a reality.
“Another example is digital twins, which simulate human behavior and thinking and potentially enable interaction with real humans,” Wang said, according to the report.
“Doctors can use digital twin technology to create human body models for organ examination or to simulate a patient's physiological state, which can improve medical efficiency.”
