Checking the digital cartography app on my smartphone just outside London’s Old Street tube station, I can see that my device is flicking intermittently between 3G and 4G. This is not particularly helpful in getting Google Maps to help me navigate on foot around Old Street’s notoriously complex pedestrian junction. It’s also embarrassing, because I’m running late for my appointment with one of the world’s leading experts on mobile cellular technology network standards, InterDigital’s Head of Future Wireless Dr Alain Mourad.
Thought leader, inventor and holder of more than 50 patents in this technology space, he’s making time to bring me up to speed on the fifth generation (‘5G’) of the standard, 6G and maybe beyond. With my smartphone barely able to make a phone call, it’s not a good omen.
When I eventually locate InterDigital’s HQ in London’s Covid-19 ghost town, we sit in the conference room of an otherwise deserted office suite and we jump straight...