6G or not 6G? That is the question: A regular column on the information industries

6G is expected to become some kind of a reality in 2030, thereby maintaining the roughly ten-year gap between generations of mobile telephony, although, as with previous generations, there is a tendency in some quarters to specify an intermediate stage – in this case branded “5.5 G”. As yet, little is known for certain as to what form 6G will take, but a consensus appears to be forming around the idea that it will unify the experience across physical, digital and biological worlds – that is, it will involve much closer integration between humans and machines. An alternative version suggests...