Time holds the key to 6G
5G is still in the early stages of its rollout but the attention in R&D is now on the next generation to come, even if its launch may be some way off.
At the VLSI Symposia 2020 in June, Takehiro Nakamura, senior VP and general manager of 5G Laboratories at NTT Docomo, said he expects 6G to arrive a decade from now. But geopolitics driven by the US even with a change in administration may play a role in speeding up the development of follow-ons to 5G.
In an online seminar earlier this autumn organised by Stanford University's Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) group, Mike Brown, director of the US Defense Innovation Unit, pointed to the way in which Chinese suppliers had overtaken telecom suppliers based in the west: "On 5G, we were asleep at the switch: we've let telecoms leadership leave the US."