Some naive thoughts

 My current fields of interest change all the time. From home servers to quality audio to networking, it can vary on a weekly basis. That is why I chose an article titled “Toward 6G: A New Era of Convergence” by Amin Ebrahimzadeh and Martin Meier. I only read the first big chapter, but even that had a lot of interesting takes and ways the future can be imagined.
 Firstly, it starts off by stating that current (4G) networks can’t provide sufficient latency for certain IoT devices to operate safely. For example self-driving cars must have access to the lowest latency internet possible, so they can have real-time information about road conditions and react to it. One of the reasons why it is difficult to reach on 4G is because distance and the number of devices greatly affects the latency. I don’t see this changing radically with 6G, though. The authors then go on to speculate on what the future holds for us in terms of everyday technology usage, which requires significantly better connections than today’s mobile internet. One of these speculations was holographic calls instead of video and audio calls. I am keen on seeing that in real life, and figuring out how it is any better than the options we have now. I mostly am all in for innovation, but I use audio calls only, so I think enhancing that should be (and is) in focus nowadays. One other technological breakthrough the authors foresee is teleoperated driving. This could be a great solution for when (both situations and time horizons) self-driving is not possible. One much more promising prediction is that 6G is going to focus on saving costs. This would be great, especially because the now seven years old fifth-generation network can still not be the standard option at ISPs here in Finland. It still costs significantly more than a normal 4G plan, at a time when one can get a 5G capable smartphone for under €200. (Honor 200 Smart for €149 at the time of writing) Unfortunately they did not elaborate on how it could be more cost-effective, other than stating that it will try to reach every rural area on Earth to provide everyone good connection.
In the second part of the chapter the authors wrote about the history of mobile connections, and quoted a prediction that by 2030, 6G will be deployed. This article was written almost 7 years ago, and now we can see that it would take a miracle to do that. But I would be the happiest to see technological development at such breakneck speed!
Nearing the end of what I think is only an introduction to a much more detailed write-up, the authors continue with the futuristic predictions. Some predictions we can already see coming, like a multisensor XR system or wireless brain-computer interaction, others have yet to gain relevance. As an example, they predict the end of the smartphone era, when wearables give people superhuman abilities and touchscreen typing is replaced by dictating messages. Again, not much elaboration here. I personally do not agree with people who say smartphones cannot be developed much further and they are all the same. Some companies still have incentives to do that, and – while the category’s form factor may have been stabilized – the cameras and batteries still have room to grow.
All in all, this was an interesting article, partially because it mirrors how people saw 6G when its latest predecessor was deployed, and partially because it definitely added to my passive vocabulary. Teleoperable driving and tactile internet are some new and interesting phrases. While reading the article gave me new insights, it did not change my view about mobile networks radically. I just recorded my cell phone playing two Call of Duty games at the same time, without significant lagging or blackouts – all while connected to 4G mobile network. I conclude that speed and latency might not be the biggest issue with internet.