6G to launch in 2026
With plans to launch the pilot project for 6G in 2026, the South Korean government has already made plans to commercialise the networking service between 2028 and 2030.
Prime Minister, Chung Se-kyun, has recently finalised these plans and has laid the foundations to promote the research and development into the next generation telecommunications network. These plans involve the development of innovative future technologies as well as securing patents.
As of next year, 2021, the South Korean government is planning on investing approximately $169 million (200 billion KRW) into their 6G project over the course of the next five years. This is to secure the high risk technology needed to deploy 6G. The investment into the next generation wireless network will also push development and strategic tasks in six vital areas, including; hyper-intelligence, hyper-performance, hyper-space, hyper-bandwidth, hyper-trust and hyper-precision
The aims of the 6G project
The new founded project will aim to reach data transmission speeds of one-terabyte-per-second, which is believed to be five times faster than the current 5G network. It also aims to reduce latency to a tenth of that experienced by 5G.
Once the adequate infrastructure is obtained, the government will be able to start the pilot network which is projected to benefit industries such as smart city construction, vehicle automation and healthcare.
The race to 6G
South Korea is not the only Asian country to be conducting research into the development of 6G networks. Japan and China have also started to invest and research into 6G technology, thus, entering the race.
Not only has the Japanese government announced a 6G wireless network plan, but the Japanese telco company NTT DoCoMo have also announced their desire to launch commercial 6G technology by 2030.
Research into the new network has also started in Europe, with Finland being one of the first countries to explore and research into the future of 6G.
