Up Next, 6G
We need to take back leadership. And this is what Trump was saying when he said America should lead the way on 6G. He threw out a challenge for us to create 6G. We need to get going. We need to push ourselves. We need to innovate.
Our response was: Doesn’t he know that there isn’t any 6G? How can we take the lead on something that doesn’t even exist?
I find the same thing is true throughout our culture these days. America doesn’t have that cutthroat hunger to be the best, to lead, and to be first and greatest. Today, we are comfortable, contented, and disengaged.
I think this is why our cellular and broadband service is 2X as much and half as fast, and why we pay 8X as much for health care as the average of first world countries while not being in the top ten as far as outcomes and quality.
I might even be lulled into this comfortable complacency if it weren’t for the fact that I travel a lot.
Today, Asia feels a lot like America did in the 1970s. There is this feeling there that anybody can make it if they just work hard enough.
So why don’t we leapfrog and design 6G? I don’t know what it is, but let me throw out a concept…
With 6G the physical network you are on becomes transparent. You seamlessly migrate across any internet capable transport mechanism…from WiFi to one carrier and then to another carrier. You don’t need SSID codes or passwords, it all just happens.
The pieces are there to stitch together.
5G cellular allows overlapping cellular frequencies so you can migrate from 600MHz to 2GHz towers. Hotspot 2.0 provides password free secure connections to WiFi access points without local credentials.
When you have a 6G device you can freely take advantage of nearby WiFi access points that have joined the 6G network, and whatever cellular tower gives the best service, and any broadband connection. Data is end-to-end encrypted by the network, so that unsecured protocols like SMTP and IMAP become encrypted because they are on a secure pipe.
With 6G disparate networks become one big mesh. You don’t care or know if you are on a hard wired connection or WiFi or a nearby 5G tower or a 600 MHz tower or a 2GHz tower or even Musk’s satellite constellation. You are simply on the 6G network.
So how’s that for a vision?
Anybody care to get on the 6G bandwagon?