But, now that 5G is here — and some consumers still ask what real-world benefits it offers — there is a feeling among some in the telecoms industry that it might be time to move beyond the “Gs” and towards more organic change, which is less likely to lead to disappointments.
After all, some of the biggest changes that each “G” have brought have come within that generation — not from switching to the next one.
Ronny Hadani, chief scientific officer at Cohere Technologies, a spectrum software company, says: “I personally believe it’s crazy for the industry to be in a 10-year cycle, when the world is changing overnight. The cloud is updating weekly.”
Santiago Tenorio, network architecture director at Vodafone, goes further, arguing that “nobody needs 6G”.
“The industry should make 6G a no-G,” he says. “There is practically nothing left that we’re missing in a hypothetical new generation. We would be much better off improving services and applications.”
Still, despite the naysaying, momentum for 6G is building. Frodigh says there are now dozens of researchers wholly dedicated to 6G research at Ericsson.
He adds that test beds are likely to start emerging as early as 2024, with the first version of the standards — which shape the way networks around the world operate — likely to be ready by 2028.
“We will update 5G during these years but there will be a demand for even more capacity, even more features, that will get more and more difficult to add,” he says.