You could call them wannabes. Responding to the news that the
U.S. and Sweden are collabora ng on 6G, Strand Consul ng CEO
John Strand told Fierce "the number of countries that have a
dream that they will become leaders on 6G is very long." But he
noted it is actually companies that will do the heavy "real world"
li ing when it comes to the next genera on of wireless.
The list of 6G hopefuls includes "countries such as Germany,
U.K., U.S.A., India, Korea, Japan, Brazil, Romania and most
recently Sweden," Strand said. He added "A er Xi's visit to
Moscow, China and Russia proclaimed that they will be leaders
on 6G" and beyond that the European Union has great ambi ons
around 6G.
In the real world, however, countries won't have much impact at
all on the next genera on cellular standard.
"It's free for poli cians who want to appear as people who make
their na ons leaders in the digital world to put their names on
such press releases," Strand said. "Personally, I think many of
these people expose their lack of insight into what's happening
in the real world."
The actual work of 6G
The actual work to create new cellular standard – and the next
G – is done in 3rd Genera on Partnership Project (3GPP) and
the Interna onal Telecommunica on Union (ITU) as well as
at companies like Qualcomm, Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and
Huawei, Strand noted.
The agencies handle the standardiza on work and also handle
the backward compa bility element of the new standards.
Meanwhile, companies "spend billions on research, but also
spend a lot of money on buying companies that develop new
technology," Strand said.
"These companies not only develop the new standards, but
they are also the ones who take out patents, patents that are
linked to the patents they already have – here is the magic word
'essen al patents,'" he said. That means companies have a
vested interest in ensuring "that the next standards will be
based on the technologies they have developed and patented,"
Strand noted.
The long and the short of it? All the noise about 6G is "iden cal"
to what happened with 3G, 4G and 5G. But in the end, it's
companies, not governments, at the wheel.
Ar cle Credit: h ps://www.fierce-network.com/wireless/
companies-not-countries-will-create-next-g
Companies – not countries
– will create the next G
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