American industry has just created a special body with executives from AT&T and Ericsson to try to put the US in the lead in the development and implementation of the technology 6G. The group is called Next G Alliance, and has more than 45 telecommunications and information companies working on the development of 5G and 6G under the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS).

Andre Feutsch, CTO of AT&T, has been named chairman of the Next G Alliance Full Member Group, and executives from AT&T, Nokia and VMware are part of the alliance's steering group.

Right now, the mobile industry is focused on rolling out 5G nationwide. But the Next G Alliance is starting projects to create a roadmap for research, technology development, service and application enablers, policy and government actions, and market priorities for the U.S. to try to dominate 6G. A separate group, “Green G,” will focus on the environmental impacts of cellular networks and their sustainability.

Susan Miller, president of ATIS, said: “Innovation often occurs in response to market needs, but long-term technology leadership requires strategic vision and stakeholder commitment to achieve the desired future state. With its established leadership and work on sustainability and the roadmap for 6G, the Next G Alliance is well positioned to create a national vision for the next decade.”

The power of 6G

Some of the advancements that 6G technology could bring to the U.S. include increased speed, increased capacity, and reduced network latency. These aspects yield superior broadband that can support truly immersive extended reality (XR) and high-resolution mobile holograms, such as pointed out TechRadar. 6G can also offer up to 100 times more capacity than 5G, supporting 10 million devices per square meter.

China and Finland are also already researching and developing programs for implementing 6G, so despite the US's wishes, they are already behind in the competition.

Image: Just Super (iStock)