Are you still using 4G? 6G is coming soon. The battle for 6G among countries has quietly started nearly 20 years ago.

When China leads the world in 5G technology, the United States is well aware of its backwardness and has already laid out 6G. What caught the United States off guard is that Huawei has already taken the lead in 6G technology, and 31% of national patents have been acquired by China.

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On April 19, 2021, the Minister of Industry and Information Technology revealed in an interview at a press conference that China has now completed a large-scale 5G network construction work. This will be the largest 5G network in the world, and most prefecture-level cities will be covered by this 5G network system under this independent networking mode.

Data shows that as of the end of March 2021, my country has built nearly 820,000 5G base stations, and the 5G terminals of the three major operators have basically been connected, with a total of about 285 million. This covers almost the vast majority of the range and basically achieves all-round coverage of 5G technology without blind spots.

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In fact, in my country's communications field, it is not only 5G technology that leads the industry, but other countries can hardly catch up in 6G. Ren Zhengfei once gave this evaluation of my country's 6G technology: still leading.

So how powerful is my country's 6G technology?

There are four key technologies in the field of 6G communications worldwide, mainly terahertz technology, air-space-sea integration technology, deterministic network technology, and AI-based air interface technology. Among the patent applications in these four technical fields, the number of Chinese patent applications accounts for a relatively high proportion of the world's total. Even in some key areas, my country's 6G communication technology has reached a world-leading position.

The number of patent applications for terahertz technology in the world is 7,737, of which my country has applied for 3,118. In terms of proportion alone, it has exceeded 40% of the total applications, the highest in the world.

The global number of applications for integrated air, space and sea technologies is 25,509, and the number of applications from my country is as high as 9,159. It is not difficult to see that the advantage in proportion is also absolute, exceeding 31%.

It is worth mentioning that my country is still in the construction stage in these two technological fields. Once the technology matures, the leading position will be immeasurable.

In the other two key technology fields, my country is in the process of catching up with the world's forefront, and the gap is gradually narrowing.

Although my country leads the world in the number of applications for various patent technologies and can be said to occupy the commanding heights of the industry, the comprehensive strength of my country's domestic communications research enterprises and institutions is still relatively weak and there is still a gap with other countries.

In other words, although the number of patent applications in my country is very large, the advantages of innovative entities are not high, and they are still at a disadvantage compared to other peer companies.

At this stage, my country is also increasing its scientific research funding and policy support. In the future, a large number of suppliers and scientific research institutions should continue to emerge to continue to promote the development of my country's 6G communications industry.

At present, the research on 6G communication technology has just begun worldwide, and many countries have just entered this field. Old countries in the field of communication technology, such as the United States, South Korea, Finland and other countries, have immediately launched a battle for the high ground of technology and hardware.

Huawei announced in April that my country's 6G technology will be put on the market in the near future, around 2030.

So why is 6G technology so important to all countries? What are its advantages?

According to relevant reports, 6G technology is the communication technology with the fastest information transmission speed so far. The improvement in network speed is unquestionable. It is an update and iteration of 5G technology. Cui Baoguo, vice dean of the School of Information at Tsinghua University, once said that his research team found after years of experiments that 6G network speed may be more than 50 times that of 5G.

At the same time, 6G technology relies on the most advanced terahertz frequency band, and its penetration exceeds all existing bands. In the 6G era, the accuracy error in the city may be reduced to within 10 centimeters, and outdoors, the accuracy error will not exceed 1 meter.

In addition, according to relevant scientific research data, the communication coverage of 6G network is very high, covering almost all networks in the world. Some experts say that this coverage is carpet-like. Once the 6G network is put into use, no matter how remote the mountain village is or how far you are in the vast ocean, the signal can be transmitted accurately, and there is basically no signal blind spot or dead angle. So... will the monthly rental fee be expensive?

At the same time, some experts pointed out that 6G communication technology not only has a wide coverage and fast network speed, but also has communication information security that other technologies cannot achieve.

This technology is very likely to be used in the military and political fields. The application of 6G technology may bring about major scientific and technological reforms in my country's national defense field. In short, the investment and use of 6G technology will inevitably bring us earth-shaking changes.

The United States began researching 6G as early as 18 years ago. The early research focus was still on 6G chips, and practical research was carried out in the field of integrated air, space and sea communications, especially satellite Internet communications. South Korea also placed 6G technology research at the forefront of scientific research, and announced that the development of 6G ultra-high frequency band wireless devices will be the top priority of South Korea's communications issues.

In addition to the above-mentioned patents, my country's Ministry of Science and Technology launched a 6G technology research and development project consisting of 40 scientific research institutions at the end of 2010, held more than 60 seminars, and the standard organization in the field of 6G communications also gave specific standards for 6G-related technologies.

In the future, our country will surely make great achievements in 6G and benefit society.