Forget 5G, 6G To Offer Max Internet Speed Of 1000Gbps, Claims Samsung

The latest connectivity standard, 5G is available in some markets and is yet to make its way into several major countries. In India, there is no certainty regarding when we can expect to experience 5G standards as the COVID-19 pandemic has delayed it further. However, it looks like Samsung is eying the next-generation connectivity standard, 6G.

In a white paper titled 'The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All'. It outlines the vision of the company for the next-generation communication system. The white paper covers aspects related to 6G including new services, technical and societal megatrends, candidate technologies, requirements, and an expected timeline of standardization.

The South Korean tech giant predicts that it is possible to witness the launch of the blazing-fast standard by the end of this decade. Given the gap between each new generation of standard, the completion of 6G and its early commercialization is likely to happen in 2028. The massive commercialization might take place in 2030.

What Could 6G Bring In?

Samsung claims that 6G connectivity standards could bring about speed, reliability, and latency. All these aspects are likely to witness improvements by transitioning from the 5G standard, which is yet to be fully commercialized. 5G was designed to deliver 20Gbps peak data rate and 6G is expected to provide a whopping 1000Gbps of data rate, adds the company.

Furthermore, it is believed that the user-experienced latency could be under 10 milliseconds and the air latency could be under 100 microseconds as compared to the one millisecond for the 5G standard. We can expect to see a 10x improvement in the reliability for latency-sensitive services such as emergency response and remote surgery as compared to 5G.

Possible Use Cases Of 6G

The 6G standard could be used for technologies such as truly immersive XR (AR/VR/mixed reality). The company believes that streaming AR to an 8K display requires 55.3Mbps and maintains that truly immersive AR needs 0.44Gbps speeds. The firm also believes that 16K VR streaming might require download speeds of 0.9Gbps, which is something that the current 5G connections might not be able to provide.

The other use cases for 6G suggested by Samsung are high fidelity holograms, Digital Twin/Digital Replica technologies to replicate devices, places, and people among others. A human-sized high fidelity hologram is likely to require speeds ranging up to several Tbps, notes the company.

Furthermore, Samsung notes that 6G can be built with Artificial Intelligence in mind as it can deliver minimised power consumption, improve handover operations, and predict and fix network issues. It is known that 6G is still a long way to witness commercialization but companies such as Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi, and Ericsson are already working on the same.

When To Expect 6G In India?

As of now, there is no confirmation regarding when to expect 5G technology in India. Given that it is one of the major markets to get the same, we can expect 6G to also take a few years after its widespread rollout to reach the Indian market. Initially, it could be launched in the western markets and Japan as the country is already working on the next-generation wireless technology.