Government ramps up 5G and 6G research but what will it mean for your business?

In today’s connected age, telecoms networks keep the UK’s engine running. So the recent announcement that the government is to plough ￡110 million into accelerating UK research and development of 6G and 5G networks can only be good news, as Paul Hagan explains.

The bulk of the UK government’s investment (￡80 million) is going towards a Telecoms Lab being built in Solihull in the West Midlands. The package will also see three UK universities – University of York, University of Bristol and University of Surrey – receiving a share of ￡28m to team up with major telecoms companies including Nokia, Ericsson and Samsung to develop next-generation 6G network technology.

A further ￡1.2m is supporting a new R&D partnership with the Republic of Korea, which aims to accelerate the deployment of Open RAN.?Open RAN enables operators to ‘mix and match’ equipment from several suppliers within a network.

All of this is good news for the West Midlands, where it will create dozens of specialised jobs in telecoms and cyber security. But what are the wider, real-life implications for society as a whole and for the business community in particular? 5G wireless networks are still in the early stages of deployment but they have the capacity to revolutionise people’s daily lives and boost business productivity through much faster internet speeds. They will also underpin a number of new technologies such as driverless cars, improved artificial intelligence and precision healthcare.

Yet even as 5G gains momentum, wireless communication companies like HPN are already looking ahead and thinking about the next mobile phases of wireless technology. It’s called 6G and while it does not yet exist, experts predict it will incorporate novel approaches like edge computing and artificial intelligence to help make a completely new type of internet, with speeds that are a thousand times faster than the fastest Wi-Fi speeds you get from most internet providers today. 6G will bring a much wider set of uses, including transportation, healthcare, agriculture and smart-home networks.

This means that most people will begin to experience a seamless connectivity between the internet and everyday work/home life. Some experts regard it as a new dimension where we will be able to integrate the digital, the physical and the human worlds together into something really extraordinary. The smartphone will remain a key device in the 6G era but new interfaces between people and machines will make it easier to consume and control information. For example, gesture and voice control will start to replace touchscreen typing. Devices will come embedded into clothing and evolve into skin patches. The use of sophisticated tools to analyse data will improve energy efficiency in industries.

In short, experts see 6G as a gateway to future innovation and presents a real opportunity for businesses to transfer massive quantities of data to aid effective decision making and improve operational efficiencies. What’s more, it is anticipated that around 2028, in just five years’ time, the new dimension that 6G promises to deliver could start to be a reality.

These changes are coming. 6G will transform business and the workplace, and now is the time to start planning how to implement it to best effect. But if all this sound intimidating, don’t worry, you’re not alone. We are already helping businesses to plan ahead for their 6G opportunities. We can help you too. Call me or one of my HPN colleagues any time on 028 9053 8411. We look forward to making your 6G a reality.