6G is the necessary evolution of 5G. While 6G was merely talked about for several years, its formal journey towards standardization began in December 2023 with publication of the framework for developing standards and radio interfaces for 6G by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
This framework set a deadline of the end of 2030 to complete the radio interface specifications. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is responsible for defining those specifications, working closely with the ITU-Radiocommunications Sector Working Party (IT-UR WP) 5D to produce exact technical specifications and standards.
What are 6G’s key attributes?
6G’s defining characteristics are order-of-magnitude increases in speed, reliability, coverage and spectral efficiency beyond those of 5G, alongside ultra-low latency and the ability to connect an unprecedented number of devices.
6G’s speed could be up to 1 Tbps, which is 2,000 times faster than the 100–500 Mbps range experienced by phone and FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) users in areas of good 5G coverage. This will smooth and improve downloads and streaming as the world’s consumption of video content continues to balloon. It will also support future applications from 3D telepresence to agentic AI applications that require low latency network compute.
Greater speed goes hand in hand with the expected super-low latency of 1 microsecond, which is 1,000 times faster than 1 millisecond – 5G’s aim to achieve latency of low single-digit milliseconds – perfect for monitoring time-critical processes or conditions.
These higher speeds and possibility of lower latencies will come from the use of higher spectrum than those used by 5G (see below) combined with integral AI to optimize the use of network resources for efficiency many times beyond the capabilities of human decision making.
The progress of smart cities and IoT in many different contexts needs technology that can reliably and affordably support number devices that will dwarf the number used for human-to-human communications. Forecasts suggest the number of IoT devices in use globally will be 40 billion by 2030 when commercial 6G services are expected to debut.
Spectrum efficiency matters because it is a finite resource that must serve our ongoing demand for more capacity.
The combination of these attributes is the foundation for a more connected world that improves many aspects of our lives.
6G’s most notable advances and why they matter
Frequency efficiency and new spectrum: One of the most important aspects of 6G is that it leverages new spectrum known as Frequency Range 3 (FR3), from 7 GHz to 24 GHz. This is the sweet spot between coverage, capacity and super-responsive data rates for emerging applications without extreme propagation losses.
Satellite support: FR3 is also used by used by many non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), and satellite is rapidly becoming an essential element of cellular infrastructure: Device-to-cell (D2C, also known as device-to-device or D2D) allows standard cell phones to connect directly to satellites, bypassing terrestrial cell towers. D2D can provide cellular service for all suitable devices, everywhere.
That 1.8 million people signed up to test T-Mobile US’s T-Satellite D2D texting service in a beta trial this year shows how much people value universal connectivity.
Route diversity is becoming critical: For the first time, Moody’s Ratings moved telecoms into its highest-risk category in November 2024 as networks are targeted by everything from the sabotage of undersea cables to constant cyberattacks.
Inherent AI and machine learning (ML): as networks become increasingly complex with “another G” in the mix, the various kinds of AI will play essential roles in network management and optimization. Machine learning has long been used for closed loop automation in telecom networks, for fraud detection and network traffic optimization, and more advanced tasks like image recognition to identify network issues and natural language processing for chatbots.
Machine learning supported human decisions within well-defined, specific tasks, but the advent of generative AI (GenAI) and now agentic AI has caused a massive shift. The newer forms of AI won’t necessarily displace the older forms so much as be deployed in an orchestration layer above them or alongside them. Agentic AI introduces autonomous software agents that can plan, execute, and adapt to complex tasks across multiple systems with minimal human intervention.
Current tech remains relevant in the 6G era
As we mentioned at the start, 6G will be an evolution of 5G, hence market-leading technologies for 5G user equipment are well placed for the coming 6G era. Not surprisingly, MediaTek, the largest provider and seller of smartphone chips, is getting ready for the 6G transition.
For example, the company is integrating AI into its 5G modems: in addition to its leading position in smartphones, MediaTek is an established leader in 5G FWA broadband with its customer premises equipment (CPE) platform which offers an integrated 5G modem, quad-core CPU, and MediaTek Wi-Fi 6/6E/7.
It is also a pioneer in NTN connectivity, having launched the world’s first commercially available 5G IOT-NTN chipset back in 2022 and demonstrated true broadband connectivity with its New Radio-NTN (NR-NTN) solution the following year at the 2023 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
MediaTek was early to recognize the importance of reducing power consumption, which it addressed through predicting traffic patterns so modems “sleep” longer without loss of performance.
MediaTek’s was also the first to formulate an AI framework that encompasses agentic AI, GenAI and analytic AI based on different use cases. One example is its support for Unified Access Control standard (UAC), a protocol for ensuring only authorized users and devices can access specific network services. For 6G, a more advanced "3.0" version of UAC would address challenges in areas such as:
- Terahertz (THz) spectrum: Adapting to manage access and resource allocation efficiently within the THz frequencies expected in 6G.
- Integration of AI: Incorporating AI for dynamic access policy adjustments, anomaly detection, and real-time responses to threats.
- Enhanced security and privacy: Utilizing stronger authentication, more detailed access controls, and potentially blockchain for improved identity and access management.
To further support and enhance UAC 3.0, MediaTek has added modem specific AI functions to improve antenna performance by 3dB and throughput by up to 30%.
Different attitudes to 6G around the world
Attitudes to 6G vary greatly around the world, which in part reflect each region’s 5G experience.
At one end of the scale is Europe, which lags the U.S. and much of the Asia-Pacific region in 5G standalone (5G SA) deployment. There is acute reluctance to commit huge investment in 6G, having failed to monetize 5G. The continent’s largest telcos are determined to ensure 6G is a software upgrade of 5G that does not need a great deal of new hardware in the infrastructure, unlike the launches of 3G and 5G.
Meanwhile, some parties in China’s ecosystem want to lump 6G with data center compute – or perhaps more accurately, are concerned primarily with how to distribute AI inferencing workloads. Whereas the ITU and 3GPP’s definitions and work are all about infrastructure and communications. China is by far the world’s most advanced 5G market and perhaps seems more focused on a real emerging use cases for 6G rather than theoretical ones, particularly given the rate at which AI is evolving.
The U.S. is in between but closer to China in terms of 5G SA deployment, with T-Mobile apparently the most enthusiastic about 6G. In April, T-Mobile announced it has nationwide 5G-Advanced coverage, leveraging the standalone architecture on which it built its entire original 5G deployment.
In conclusion
It is unclear at this stage exactly how the development of 6G standards and subsequent deployment will play out. What is clear is that the cornerstones are NTN, AI-native user equipment and low power technology and products – all areas in which MediaTek leads in the technology and solutions today. 6G is no doubt an important global standard for a global market. As such, MediaTek is leading the way with many advances before standardization.