Rethinking 6G - Is the worldwide race to expand mobile bandwidth a fool's errand?

There is also a fundamental problem with radio systems, that the bandwidth vs power trade-off  is limited, and beyond a certain point the only way to increase capacity is to drop power and move the base-stations closer together. (as we did moving from GSM - kilo-metric cell spacing to 3g - base stations a few hundred metres apart in town centres with extra fill-in at hot spots) There is no easy radio equivalent of running another cable or fibre  beside the old one to double capacity and there is a problem of providing power and data backhaul links to all the base stations as you have more of them.

It may be that 6g is indeed a bridge too far - and the expense of building yet more radios into a handset  may not be justifiable.

Historically there has been a tendency for software to expand to use all capacity available even if not required - but maybe not in the world of pay by the megabyte or pay by the kilowatt.
Mike

As always Peter the answer is it Depends.

Do you have or does the industry have a specific need/application for 6G?  I know that Sales and Marketing people will ALWAYS say YES but is that real?

Personally I live in Watford,UK.  Now I am old enough to remember when we had 3G.  Previous iterations were not really viable like WAP and 2.5G GPRS/EDGE (General Packet Radio Service, / Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution) from and end user prospective.  However with 4G and 5G the user experience is good (Caveat when signal and backhaul is available). The reason I mention Watford my home town is that when they started to move to 5G they have not planned to move all the cell towers closer together throughout the area OR insert new cell towers in-between this now means that is my local area when I get 5G it is very nice and fast but and it is a big BUT there are now areas that do not have proper cover thus in effect dead zones/spots.  There is also another fly in the oitment and that is the sometimes lack of backhaul bandwidth.  What needs to happen in the UK is proper 5G coverage throughout the whole landmass with adequate backhaul capacity.  Personally I would also like to every UK cell tower with 24 hours backup runtime for power (48 hour in remote areas or logistically challenging areas eg the Scottish Isles).  UK 5G network needs to be made more robust and with better coverage.  As a casing point Spain/Portuagal nationwide power outage took out section on the mobile phone network at a time when people, yes normal people need it the most.  

As a comparison try the following.
Video call while moving around a densely built up area like London, (Other Large cities are available) or on the London underground.  Now lets rewind 10 years, I was on holiday to BKK (Bangkok) in 2015 I remember using 4G on a video call while in a moving taxi with near perfect signal.  

As always Peter the answer is it Depends.  Let’s try and finish the 5G implementation and upgrade in the UK before we start doing 6G.  Again another comparison, years ago I remember being told to start planning for IP6 (Internet Protocol 6) that was almost 20 years ago.  

The nth Gen mobile will be driven by the next big thing. We went from basic phones to Text messaging to photo exchanging to video conferencing, and so the persuit of the next big thing that will sell more phones, gain more engagement, etc. will continue.

At the moment here in mountain Scotland we're having a rear guard action against ridiculous phone masts in wild areas where there are zero residents in the covered area. Apparently we need to encourage inexperienced instagrammers to 'navigate' into these wild areas they be rescued by the volunteer rescue teams.

You can't win!

Hello Philip:

For US rural locations the solution is/will be LEO satellite systems such as Space X "Starlink". directly linked to 5G phone service provided by T Mobile.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay FL

Space X "Starlink" has a Whiff off Elon Musk.  After the stupid salute he did I will not touch it with a barge pole.  There is no place in society for Nazi salutes or similar.  Thus Tesla will never be on my radar either. 

Hello Sergio:

Even in my city they are still updating 5G wireless service.

The big new thing here in Florida is unique home 5G Internet systems for $30-$50 per month which will kill our local cable TV/ internet systems.

We do have a AT&T 5G cable line buried down our street but no one is  having it directly connected to their houses.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay FL 

Hello Sergio:

Yesterday Google launched the first batch of their Leo satellites into Space.

You will just have to wait another 5+ years for them to catch up to Space X.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay FL 

Well eventually to cut out the North Americans, there may be a commercial arm to  IRIS, but for now it is concentrating on air traffic control,  for now you have a rather immature  Eutelsat (carrying OneWeb), SES, and Hispasat to consider - but these are all currently courting telcos, so the business model is that one village or town has a very high bandwidth ground-station, rather than selling lots of budget receivers at the level of householders.

Starlink's currently unique point is that you take the receiver with  you, so you can set up anywhere on the planet that Starlink don't geo-fence, that is not too far north, and apply power and you are off and away.
So ideal for installation into sea-going vessels, and vans that drive into the middle of open fields and deserts and so on.
Mike.

Hello Mike

My daughter lives in a rural part of Florida and does remote work from her home using Starlink. The original connection point was Atlanta but was recently changed (without any notification) to Miami.

Once set up she has had no problems with the system.

Peter Brooks

Palm Bay FL