While 5G is primed to have an immense impact on the way we work and stay connected, it is bound to be surpassed by the next big thing: 6G. And what’s more, three of the biggest names in the telecom industry have already decided to collaborate on it.
Scandinavian telecom vendors Nokia and Ericsson have reportedly entered into a partnership with South Korean company SK Telecom (SKT) to work on research and development for 6G. As one of the top telecom operators in the world and also the first to switch on a commercial 5G network, SKT clearly hopes to stay ahead of the curve and pioneer the future of connectivity technology.
The Korean operator’s CEO Park Jeong-Ho met with his new partners Tommi Uitto from Nokia Mobile Network and Per Navinger from Ericsson to sign joint technology development memorandums. Interestingly enough, this technological collaboration is one aspect of a grand plan to strengthen the Asian country’s ties with Scandinavia.
SKT firmly believes that this collaboration will play an important role in setting the foundation for 6G and ultimately shaping the future of network technology.
“Collaboration between companies like this will be important as the technology and standard for 6G networks is yet to be clearly defined,” SK Telecom said.
The partners will work on a whole host of projects along with 6G R&D, including research on Ultra Reliable and Low Latency (URLLC), Distributed Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), artificial intelligence in networks, 28GHz band and 5G stand-alone networks. These projects and their ultimate implementation will be pivotal in determining the effectiveness of commercial 5G and later generation networks.
As it happens, this is not the first instance of plans being devised to work on 6G development; Samsung has reportedly started working on that project as well. However, these developments create an interesting environment of competition and innovation that is only going to speed up the implementation of 6G. Expect to experience download speeds of multiple terabytes per second pretty soon!
