5G connectivity has been considered the standard for smartphone technology for about five years. However, with 6G technology on the horizon, developers are looking for ways to fully utilize the new generation of wide bandwidth. A technology demo held in Japan revealed the incredible speeds offered by 6G.

6G can provide data transfers 500 times faster than the average speed of 5G

As a result of research and development studies conducted by Japan’s telecommunications company NTT, mobile operator DOCOMO and electronics giants NEC and Fujitsu, a prototype wireless device has reached a data transfer speed of 100 Gbps. This speed is 10 times the highest speed of 5G and 500 times the speed of an average 5G smartphone.

Considering that a medium-quality Netflix movie is about 1.5 GB in size, it is possible to transfer eight or nine movies per second at this speed. This extraordinary speed is achieved by using high-frequency bands operating in the 100 GHz and 300 GHz frequency bands. This offers much more data carrying capacity than previous generation standards.

This new technology currently has some limitations in terms of range. However, the experiment showed a stable connection at a distance of 100 meters. Advances in communication technology will require different types of transmitters and receivers when building a 6G network. This will also develop based on such innovations.

In terms of hardware, this demo required quite advanced equipment. However, as technology develops, the size and cost of this equipment will decrease over time. It is important to remember that 5G’s highest speed of 10 Gbps is a technical ceiling and is achieved using the most powerful and optimized hardware in the best conditions. According to Open Signal, T-Mobile, the carrier with the best 5G speeds in the US, says its average 5G speed is 186.3 Mbps.

These blazing fast speeds offered by 6G will be useful in everything from high-definition movie downloads to autonomous vehicle communications. 6G is also expected to make a big leap in terms of network capacity, with more devices able to stay connected at the same time. The network congestion you experience when you lose your phone signal at crowded concerts or sporting events will be almost completely eliminated with 6G.

In certain situations, we could see 6G make Wi-Fi largely obsolete. This could mean no need to run a physical cable through your home or office. More broadly, it means connecting more devices to the internet at faster speeds, and being packed with more components and sensors that can communicate with the web and each other. Nokia predicts that 6G will be commercially available by 2030.