Samsung holds 1st-ever 6G forum to discuss next gen tech

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Samsung Electronics on Friday held its first 6G forum with experts from academia and industry to discuss the future of communications technologies, in a bid to lead 6G research and development and standardisation.

At the forum, titled 'The Next Hyper-Connected Experience for All,' global industry experts had presentations and discussions on the topics of 6G air interface and AI-based intelligent networks for 6G.

"We envision that 6G will provide ultimate experiences for humans and everything through the next level of hyper-connectivity, and this idea serves as the foundation of our 6G vision," Sebastian Seung, president and head of Samsung Research, said during his speech.

While 5G communication networks are still in the process of commercialisation around the world and often face complaints from users about quality and speed, Seung said it was time to start preparing for 6G, reports Yonhap news agency.

"Shaping 6G will require many years, as we have seen with previous generations, and will need lots of discussion and collaborations among players in industry and academia," he added.

Samsung released a white paper earlier this month, laying out its vision for 6G, characterised as "ultra-wideband, ultra-low latency, ultra-intelligence and hyper-spatialisation," and ways to secure global frequency bands for 6G.

Senior Vice President Charlie Zhang of Samsung Research America said while 6G technologies are still at an early stage, "a few emerging directions are taking shape and gaining momentum in academia and industry alike."

Samsung Research, which formed a research unit dedicated to 6G in 2019, said 6G technologies will enable truly immersive extended reality, high-fidelity mobile holograms and digital replicas, as often seen in science fiction movies. It also expected the performance of telecommunications networks to improve greatly. Also, users will be able to have connected experiences anytime, anywhere.

The South Korean tech giant has been working on developing unified global standards for mobile communications. It was among the first to commercialise 5G in April 2019.

It expected the standardisation of 6G to be realised around 2025, which Samsung said would usher in the hyper-connected world by increasing communications speed and enabling mobile-based virtual reality experiences.

In September 2020, Samsung won a $6.64 billion deal to provide 5G communications solutions to Verizon. It was the largest network-related deal ever made by a South Korean firm.

Earlier this month, it signed another 5G equipment deal, believed to be worth more than 1 trillion won, with US wireless carrier DISH Network.

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