Japan could take 6G lead as it gets the vital backing from major firms that will ensure enough R & D and resources. The firms like Toyota Motor, NEC, and others have joined hands to propose technological requirements for sixth-generation cellular communications. The project is backed by the Japanese government and seeks to contain and surpass the advancements of Asian giants like China.
Carriers NTT Docomo, Rakuten Mobile, KDDI have also entered the initiative that will boost the country’s ambition to take an early lead in the 5G successor.
The technical proposal for this initiative will be released soon by ‘Beyond 5G Promotion Consortium‘, Nikkei Asia has learned. The elite group consists of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, academic institutions, firms Panasonic, NTT Docomo, and many others.
The group will be responsible to explore the specific technical requirements for individual fields and applications of 6G. The consortium will likewise, set targets that companies worldwide could meet. This is to ensure that their 6G initiatives are secure and reliable.
The Japanese team will hand over its proposal to International Telecommunication Union (ITU) at a meeting of a working group. This working group will formulate technical requirements for the 6G network by June 2023. Meanwhile, it will implement the technology to define specifications for separate applications.
Also read: Vietnam to Start Development of 6G Technology Later This Year
Japan is also collaborating with Finland
A team from Japan and Finland will join hands to develop standards for future 6G technologies. They have agreed to co-work for standards and technologies for 6G communications before. In 2021, both countries signed a bilateral partnership with partnership between the University of Tokyo and the University of Oulu in Finland.
This international partnership concocts the roadmap for the 6G wireless communications and carries out various researches in the future.
The University of Tokyo has stated that healthcare, disaster response, and satellite coordination could benefit from 6G integration. This could prove crucial for countries like Japan which is prone to earthquakes and tsunamis that frequently devastates people’s lives.
This is not the first attempt by the Japanese government for the 6G project though. Previously, it has formed a partnership with the US to head research into the sixth-generation in an attempt to contain China’s own 5G and 6G efforts.
Likewise, South Korea, the EU, the US also have similar projects in place to develop the 6G framework and explore its industrial application possibilities.
6G is supposed to launch for trails as early as 2028 and commercially roll out around 2030. South Korean, and Japanese tech firms have successfully demonstrated 6G throughput capacity in lab testing in the terahertz spectrum. China has achieved the highest 6G speed in vortex mmWave.
A research firm ABI Research says it expects the first 6G standards to release by 2026.
China has emboldened its hold on 5G as well as South Korea and Japan but for 6G, the race is wide open.
Do you think Japan could take 6G lead with its ambitious initiatives? Do leave your impressions in the comments below.