The Japanese government announced plans to put together a comprehensive strategy regarding future “6G” wireless communications networks, and it set up a panel to start discussions on the topic later this month, Japanese press reported.
The 6G panel will discuss and analyze technology development, potential utilization of this future technology, as well as methods and policies, according to the International Affairs and Communications Ministry.
According to the report, 6G is expected to be launched around 2030.
Japan’s 6G panel will include representatives of the private sector as well as university researchers and will hear opinions from a variety of industries in order to study potential challenges, according to the report.
However, Japan is not alone in the field of 6G research. In November 2019, China officially started researching 6G technology.
According to reports by Chinese state media, government ministries and research institutes had initial meetings with the aim of establishing a national 6G technology research and development group.
The Ministry of Science and Technology said that it will set up two working groups to carry out the 6G research activities.
One group will consist of relevant government departments responsible for promoting how 6G research and development will be carried out. The other group will be made up of 37 universities, research institutes and companies, which will exclusively focus on the technical side of 6G technologies.
However, the Chinese government acknowledged that there is still a long way until 6G technology can be defined. Vice Minister Wang Xi of the Ministry of Science and Technology said: “The initial stage and the technical route [of 6G]is still not clear, and the key indicators and application scenarios have not been standardized and defined.”
According to a previous report by the CNBC, Chinese vendor Huawei has already begun research on future 6G technology.
Huawei’s founder Ren Zhengfei told a CNBC-hosted panel that the company began to carry out research activities on 6G “a long time ago,” and has parallel work being done on 5G and 6G — but that it’s in an “early phase”.
Ren also said that there’s still “a long way to go” before commercialization of 6G, which according to the executive is still “ten years out.”
Huawei has started research on future 6G mobile technology at its research facility in Ottawa, Canada, tech site The Logic recently reported.
Also, ZTE’s Chief Scientist Xiang Jiying told reporters at last year’s MWC Barcelona that the Chinese vendor was already researching on future 6G technologies. “We have a research group focusing on that. This group is called advanced technologies, which would be those technologies beyond 5G,” the executive said.
Also in November, the University of Oulu, in Finland, published what is claimed to be the world’s first 6G whitepaper, outlining the key drivers, research requirements and challenges for this technology.
The report outlines a tentative roadmap towards ‘ubiquitous wireless intelligence’ for 2030. “The bottom line of 6G is data,” said Matti Latva-aho, director of 6G Flagship at the University of Oulu and co-editor of the whitepaper. “The way in which data is collected, processed, transmitted and consumed within the wireless network should drive 6G development.”
The whitepaper also postulates that 6G will become a framework of services, including communication services: “In 6G, all user-specific computation and intelligence may move to the edge cloud. Integration of sensing, imaging and highly accurate positioning capabilities with mobility opens a myriad of new applications in 6G. Trust and privacy are key prerequisites for a successful 6G service platform.”
