2022 in review: 6G progress and politics

With the next generation of mobile technology always on the horizon, the telecom industry made moves this year to prepare for the arrival of 6G.

While 6G isn't expected to hit the commercial market until roughly 2030, the race to get there has already been marked with billions of dollars in investments, early claims of potential use cases, political jockeying for international collaboration and fretting about where all of this is going.

Predicted use cases for 6G include sensing, deep learning and digital twinning technologies that will enable autonomous driving, robotics and the industrial metaverse, among other possibilities, according to industry experts.

But whether 6G ends up being a transformational technology for the telecommunications industry, just an upgrade on 5G – or if it comes to fruition at all – remains to be seen. The industry is still trying to justify the investment in and hype around 5G, which has arguably found a more successful use case in fixed wireless access (FWA) than mobile so far, driven in part by the rush to home broadband during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We'll be watching where it all goes next year. For now, catch up on some of Light Reading's most-read 6G coverage from 2022 below:

Figure 1:
(Source: Kirill Ivanov/Alamy Stock Photo)

1/11/22 – China rails at foreign 6G partnerships
(Robert Clark, Contributing Editor)

1/12/22 – Keysight to start 6G tests in California, Washington
(Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies)

2/3/22 – Next G Alliance offers 'holistic' view of 6G in North America
(Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies)

2/9/22 – For all the early 6G talk, the Gs investment cycle looks broken
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

2/10/22 – Nokia Bell Labs' Peter Vetter: 6G will unite the physical and digital worlds
(Kelsey Kusterer Ziser, Senior Editor)

2/28/22 – 6G threatens to be mobile's lost generation
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

3/15/22 – 6G will not be a new radio standard, say BT and Vodafone
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

4/7/22 – How governments are shaping the race to 6G
(Robert Clark, Contributing Editor)

4/27/22 – Could 6G mark a return to usage-based pricing?
(Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies)

5/10/22 – Sensing, deep learning, massive MIMO: 6G begins to take shape
(Robert Clark, Contributing Editor)

5/17/22 – NTT Docomo to start 6G trials with Nokia
(Robert Clark, Contributing Editor)

5/17/22 – 6G has every chance of screwing the carriers
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

6/6/22 – NTT Docomo to start 6G trials with Nokia
(Robert Clark, Contributing Editor)

6/14/22 – World regulators look for consensus around 6G
(Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies)

8/12/22 – What the 6GHz band might mean for FWA
(Mike Dano, Editorial Director, 5G & Mobile Strategies)

11/22/22 – 6G poses existential threat to Ericsson
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

12/9/22 – The 6G mess is getting out of hand
(Iain Morris, International Editor)

— The Staff, Light Reading