Proactive Investors - Despite ill-founded rumours that it is linked to Covid, the roll-out of 5G mobile has reached less than a third of the world's population and investment in 6G is already stepping up, with Ericsson (BS:ERICAs) today launching an investment worth "tens of billions of pounds" in UK research and development.
With 6G expected to become available in the 2030s around three decades since the launch of 3G in 2001 and two since 4G in 2009, the Swedish telecoms group said it will set up a new UK research unit, staffed by 20 dedicated researchers along with additional PhD students and leading academics, as part of a 10-year investment program focusing on 6G research and "breakthrough innovations".
The announcement from Ericsson comes after the European Commission heralded the "scaling up" of 6G research with 35 new projects selected for €250mln of investment, including Nokia (HE:NOKIA) leading the flagship Hexa-X-II project, which is working on a 6G "vision", possible use cases and technology enablers.
As with its predecessors, 6G is designed to offer faster and more complex mobile broadband, while being more energy efficient.
There have been problems with 5G too, as some towers have a limited reach as while they operate on millimetre-wave radio frequencies that are capable of carrying lots of data but are limited to less than one square mile of coverage, while also having a lower ability to penetrate obstacles such as buildings, trees and even rain or snow.
Nokia and Bell Labs have said the new pioneer spectrum blocks for 6G are expected to be at mid-bands 7–20 GHz for urban outdoor cells, enabling higher capacity, while low bands 460–694 MHz will provide for maximum coverage.
Spectrum sales will also rake in extra funds for governments, with the first stage of the UK auction in 2021 generating £1.36bn, of which BT Group PLC (LON:BT.A) paid £452mln for the largest allocation.
While 5G offers download speeds of 90Mbps – 230Mbps, 6G could offer rates ten times faster, according to Nokia, with networks offering 20 times the capacity of 5G networks using new spectrum and using more sophisticated or extreme MIMO.
The industry expects standardisation of 6G will begin around 2025, leading to the first 6G specification close to three year later, followed by commercial deployments around 2030.
Ahead of this will come 5G-Advanced, where enhancements are made for 5G - where UK regulator Ofcom said coverage from at least one operator was available at 48%-64% of premises around the country.