With 5G barely out being deployed to the world, news has come from China that it has started looking into 6G development. China has just turned on its 5G networks this month, being one of the very few countries with 5G deployed and now has reportedly set its eyes on 6G.
5G deployment has only been seen in a few countries, with China and Korea seeing country wide deployment, U.K. and U.S. having limited deployment. In India, 5G is set to arrive soon with Reliance Jio claiming to be working on it. Experts have already struggled to find real use cases for 5G and China has now jumped to 6G technology research.
While 5G continues to be slowly deployed around the world, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, on Wednesday, said in a statement that they have set up two teams to start the development of 6G. The first group will consist of government departments researching on use cases for 6G. The second team will be made up of 37 universities, research institutes and enterprises, which will lay out the technical side of 6G and offer advice.
Huawei had confirmed in September that they were working on 6G but its still very much in its infant stage and is still long away from commercialization.
Qualcomm Technologies already said that it will be there to provide foundational contributions and drive forward progress for the 6G technology, however it believes that 5G will be the innovation platform for the next decade.
In the statement, Vice Minister Wang Xi of the Ministry of Science and Technology said:
In this critical period of national development, we must attach great importance to the 6G development, coordinate its planning, promote it with efficiency, and open up for innovation in this area.