As 5G becomes the norm across North America, conversation has already turned to the development of 6G technology. The arrival of 6G will shape the future of the telecommunications industry, but it will also greatly impact the telecom retail landscape. 6G promises even faster speeds and better capacity. Undoubtedly, the improved connectivity of 6G will significantly benefit telecom businesses and telecom retailers in terms of customer experience and operational efficiency.
Understanding the next stage of network deployment Before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to acknowledge that 6G will take a while to implement. The 5G rollout in North America has been slower than in Asia, partly due to the pandemic, but also because of lower population densities and hotly-debated concerns about 5G’s potential to interfere with GPS and other networks. Rollout of 5G began in 2019, but currently, only 29% of all North American connections are 5G [1], and that’s following a year-on-year growth of 64%. The global mobile core network market has decreased in compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to less than 1% [2], a trend that has continued for many years because of the reduction of 5G Standalone (5G SA) networks, as opposed to 5G Non-standalone (5G NSA) networks. However, projections show greater adoption of 5G SA in North America in 2024, which may facilitate 5G expansion and enable faster rollout of 6G. Despite the slow adoption of 5G, companies are already working to develop 6G technologies faster.
NVIDIA is spearheading a platform powered by AI [3], and Nokia’s research arm Bell Labs [4] is also aiming to realize 6G sooner. But it might still take until 2028 for 6G networks to roll out. With every new generation of connectivity, the network infrastructure will need to be built first and only then can products, devices and services be created. Essentially, 6G-connected technology will only become commercially available around 2030 [5]. Yet, it isn’t too soon to prepare for the coming of 6G, because 6G expansion will impact North American wireless retailers, carriers, and device manufacturers.
