Author Archives: Doug Dawson, CCG Consulting

World Internet Statistics December 2025

At the start of a new year, I thought it would be interesting to take a fresh look at the state of the Internet around the world. The following statistics come from the DataReportal Digital 2026 Global Overview Report.

Population. There are 8.25 billion people on the planet, up 69 million over the last year, an increase of 0.8%. 58.4% of people now live in an urban center. The overall literacy rate in the world is 87.4%.

Internet. The number of people using the Internet has grown to 6.04 billion, or 73.2% of the people on Earth. That number grew by 294 million in the last year, a growth rate of 5.1%. This means that 2.2 billion people still don’t have access to the Internet.

86.5% of urban residents around the world have access to the Internet, while only 54.5% of rural residents have access.

The countries with the lowest levels of Internet adoption are North Korea (<1%), Burundi (11.1%), Central African Republic (12.0%), South Sudan (13.2%), and Chad (13.2%).

The highest rate of Internet adoption is in northern Europe (97.7%), followed by western Europe (95.1%). The lowest adoption is in eastern Africa (26.0%) and central Africa (33.5%). North America is at 93.3%. 75.7% of men around the world have access to the Internet compared to 70.7% of women.

Worldwide median download broadband speeds have grown from 82.8 Mbps in August 2023 to 104.4 Mbps in August 2025.

The fastest median download speeds in the world are in Singapore (394.3 Mbps), Chile (347.4 Mbps), Hong Kong (332.7 Mbps), the United Arab Emirates (327.6 Mbps), and France (308.0 Mbps). The slowest median download speeds are in Syria (3.4 Mbps), Cuba (3.5 Mbps), Afghanistan (4.5 Mbps), Ethiopia (9.4 Mbps), and Libya (11.0 Mbps).

The average weekly time spent using broadband online per Internet user worldwide was 33 hours, 27 minutes.

Cell Coverage. There are 5.78 billion unique cellular users in the world, meaning that 70.1% of people have a cellphone. That number increased by 108 million during the last year, an annual growth rate of 1.9%. Ericsson says that 86.9% of phones in use are smartphones.

Worldwide median download cellular speeds have more than doubled in the last two years, from 43.2 Mbps in August 2023 to 90.7 Mbps in August 2025.

The fastest median download speeds in the world are in the United Arab Emirates (614.4 Mbps), Qatar (511.4 Mbps), Kuwait (414.6 Mbps), Brazil (289.4 Mbps), and South Korea (224.5 Mbps). The slowest median download cellular speeds are in Bolivia (14.7 Mbps), Belarus (18.6 Mbps), Eswatini (19.7 Mbps), Pakistan (24.3 Mbps), and Syria (24.7 Mbps).

Social Media. There are 5.66 billion users of social media, an increase of 259 million users and a growth rate of 4.8%.

The worldwide average time spent using social media is 18 hours 36 minutes per week.

The ten most widely used social media apps, in order, are YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Messenger, SnapChat, Telegram, Pinterest, and Threads.

Devices. The devices used to access the Internet (as a percentage of total world users) are smartphones (93.7%), laptops or desktops (59.6%), connected televisions (31.6%), and tablets (28.0%).

The percentage of worldwide broadband traffic, by device used: cellphones (59.1%), laptops or computers (39.3%), tablets (1.6%), other devices (0.03%)

33% of adults now own some form of smart wrist device.

Some Hope for Non-deployment Funds?

There is still some glimmer of hope that states will see some of the BEAD non-deployment funds. I call it a glimmer of hope because the issue is far from settled.

In a December 21 online post, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick was still taking credit for having saved taxpayers about $21 billion through changes in the BEAD rules. He was responding to a Wall Street Journal editorial (Trump Unbreaks the Internet), that had praised NTIA Administrator Arielle Roth for the change in direction of the BEAD program. Secretary Lutnick said the Administration is fixing the broadband mess left behind by the Biden Administration and that Commerce has stopped funding broadband builds he characterized as “rip-off projects run by powerful lobbyists who are very good at getting grants and very bad at delivering results”.

In December, there was some movement by Congress to require NTIA to release the BEAD nondeployment funds. Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) introduced the Supporting U.S. Critical Connectivity and Economic Strategy and Security (SUCCESS) for BEAD Act that would require NTIA to disburse funds not used for infrastructure to the States. On December 23, Representatives Andy Barr and Hal Rogers, Republicans from Kentucky, introduced a matching bill in the House. These two laws just reinforce the rules in the original IIJA legislation that said that any of the $42.45 BEAD grants not used for infrastructure would still go to the States.

In early November, Arielle Roth characterized the nondeployment funds as savings in a speech made to the Hudson Institute, which signaled that NTIA didn’t want to send the money to States. However, in a forum at the Free State Foundation on December 2, Roth said she was “operating under the assumption that the states will get to use their BEAD savings. But again, nothing has been finalized.” She also said in that forum that  “any spending must produce real, measurable value, not duplicate investment the private sector is already making.”

Obviously, none of this makes NTIA’s intention clear for non-deployment funds. The issue is further complicated by an Executive Order from the White House that said that non-deployment funds can’t be flowed to States that adopt “onerous” restrictions on artificial intelligence.

NTIA has said that it will make a decision about non-deployment funds after it finalizes all of the BEAD infrastructure grants. As I write this blog, the BEAD plans of 39 states and territories have been accepted by NTIA, and the agency said it hopes to finalize the remaining plans in January.

It’s clear that earlier in the year, Secretary Lutnick intended to cut BEAD grants to claim savings on government spending. He said so many times, and is still referring to the non-deployment funds as savings.

I assume there has been a lot of lobbying on the topic from those in Congress and Governors. The House and Senate bills that require releasing the funds have been proposed by Republicans. Perhaps the pressure the lobbying for the funds is being effective since most of the large dollar amounts of nondeployment funds are in red States, including Texas ($2.04 B), North Carolina ($1.12 B), Georgia ($1.00 B), Missouri ($946 M), Alabama ($869 M), Florida ($869 M), Louisiana ($856 M), Arkansas ($692 M), Kentucky ($623 M), Tennessee ($609 M), Ohio ($517 N), and South Carolina ($510 M).

There is no way to know what the restriction on non-deployment due to AI will mean. A sizable majority of states either have already passed AI regulations or are considering them. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis reacted to the Executive Order by saying that Florida absolutely reserves the right to regulate AI, and I suspect a lot of state legislatures feel that way. I guess it will boil down to how NTIA interprets the term “onerous” regulation in the Executive Order.

The bottom line of all of this is that it’s clear as mud about whether States will see non-deployment funds, but the issue is not dead. We’ll probably know more by the end of the first quarter.

ISP New Year’s Resolutions

It’s the time of the year for New Year’s resolutions, and I asked some of my ISP clients if they are carrying unfinished tasks into the new year. Some of my clients laughed and told me that some of these tasks have been on their list for years.

Some of the wish list ‘resolutions’ I heard for 2026 included:

Integrate Records. Several ISPs said their customer and mapping records are less than ideal. They knew what a fully integrated records system should look like, where every record associated with a given customer is available at the fingertips of staff. They also want a system where the details of the physical network are integrated with customer records to be able to quickly identify where to look when there are outages or troubles. They also want a system where every new customer event and any new construction are easily and automatically integrated into existing records.

Reduce Truck Rolls. Several ISPS said they want to find ways to reduce truck rolls. They send trucks too many times when a problem could have been handled remotely. Conversely, they want to provide great customer service, and they want to send trucks when needed. In a competitive environment, they aren’t comfortable with charging customers for unneeded truck rolls.

Should They Raise Rates? Several ISPs are struggling with the idea of raising rates. They see that big ISPs are still raising rates. They are experiencing higher costs and know they should raise rates, but are still hesitant to do so.

Understand Profitability Better. Related to the question of raising rates, ISPs told me they would like to understand the factors that most impact their profitability. Are there expenses or functions they can drop that will save money? ISPs said their accounting system is a good way to measure monthly margins, but that they don’t get enough detail to fully understand the costs of operating the business.

Benefits Getting Too Expensive. Some ISPs say they are troubled by seeing the cost of health insurance and other benefits growing far faster than other costs. They struggle with what to do about it, and don’t want to cut benefits, but are worried about the cost trend.

Improve Sales to Businesses. Several ISPs told me that they have never felt fully comfortable selling to businesses in the same way that they sell residential broadband.

Dealing with Churn. Several ISPs said they struggle with finding a solution for dealing with churn. Too many times, a customer will move, and they don’t reach the new tenants until it’s too late.

Clear Out Inventory. A few ISPs laughed and told me that their accountants want them to clean out accumulated inventory, but that they dread the paperwork that comes with trying to quantify the mass of old electronics and construction materials that are no longer useful.

If you are an ISP, what unfinished tasks or goals are on your list?

Smartphones and Digital Literacy

A friend of mine, Frederick Pilot, recently asked me an interesting question. Is digital literacy that comes from using a smartphone the same as digital literacy from using a computer? It’s a great question, because the majority of Internet users in the world only have broadband access through a smartphone. In developing nations, 90% of broadband users only have access to a smartphone. In the U.S., 16% of adults only use a smartphone to reach the Internet.

There are skills needed to master using a computer that can’t be learned from using a smartphone. Computer users learn to use a mouse and to type – even people who speak to a computer need the mouse and keyboard. People working on computers learn how to create, save, and manage files. Computer users learn how to use operating systems and software programs.

By contrast, smartphone users mostly learn how to use apps. While some apps are complex, the skills learned generally apply mostly to the specific app.

It’s clear that learning how to navigate an app ecosystem is very different than mastering a computer ecosystem. Of course, some things are the same for both sets of users. Streaming video or shopping on websites is largely the same for everybody. Smartphone and computer users have email accounts and can use social media.

A key question is the degree to which only using a smartphone prepares somebody to work in a computer-based work environment. The biggest issue with smartphone-only users is that they have not learned to use a keyboard to type. It’s hard to imagine many computer-related jobs that don’t require at least some typing.

Interestingly, there are many work functions today that look more like apps than like spreadsheets or word documents. I recently visited the doctor for my annual physical, and they’ve converted to a system that captures and transcribes what the doctor says as notes in the patient history. Much of the rest of the effort of using the system means clicking through a bunch of forms and checkboxes. But the doctor and staff still need to type. The doctor edits the notes if they aren’t accurate, and some of the forms require a typed response. This is a new system, and I have to imagine that over time, the amount of typing needed will decrease. My doctor said that his favorite feature is that the system always spells drugs and medical terms properly.

Training people to use a computer has changed a lot in recent years. It wasn’t too long ago when computer training meant learning how to use a word processor and a spreadsheet. People who train others how to use computers tell me they take a more practical approach today, and that training involves things like learning mouse basics; learning basic keyboard skills; learning how to create, find, save, and organize files; learning how to navigate an operating system; Internet basics like searching and using a browser; security awareness and how to avoid scams; and basic troubleshooting and what to do when things go wrong. Much computer training today is personalized and teaches a person to use the web functions that are most important to them, like using a banking website.

None of this discussion answers the original question, which asks if smartphone users are digitally literate. I’m sure that many smartphone users are fully literate in terms of being able to navigate the web. But that doesn’t mean they have the digital skills that employers are looking for. And that begs the question of what it means to be digitally literate.

100 Years of Bell Labs

When I first entered the industry in the 70s, Bell Labs held an exalted place in the industry that was responsible for inventing and perfecting the technologies we all used. Bell Labs was founded and owned by the giant AT&T monopoly, and was operated with the brilliant concept of hiring the smartest people and letting them pursue research related to technology. Much of the research was funneled towards communication technologies, but covered a wide range of scientific and technical breakthroughs that benefited numerous industries.

Some of the key Bell Labs discoveries that benefited communications include:

  • The Transistor. Transistors replaced bulky vacuum tubes and were the basis for the microelectronics revolution.
  • Shannon’s Information Theory. This was the mathematical foundation of the digital age and defined how to treat data as a measurable entity (bits), and addressed data uncertainty, noise, efficient data compression, and transmission.
  • Fiber Optics. Bell Labs researched optical waves and turned that research into a technology for transmitting large amounts of data using lasers. Bell Labs discovered and developed erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs), which were crucial for boosting signals over long distances, and that led to the development of the internet backbone.
  • The First Communications Satellite. Bell Labs designed and built Telstar, the world’s first communication satellite. This venture also included breakthroughs in solar cells and in travelling-wave tube transponders that amplified communications signals to reach Earth.
  • The Cellular Network Concept. Bell Labs scientists developed the concept of arranging wireless networks into cells. The Lab went on to develop the technologies used for 1G, 2G, and 3G cellular networks.
  • UNIX and the C Programming Language. Bell Labs developed early programming languages, which became the basis for modern programming.
  • Digital Signal Processing (DSP): Scientists developed the concepts, algorithms, and hardware used to develop the first single-chip digital processor that has become the basis for chips used for most modern electronics.

 Bell Labs researchers earned nine Nobel Prizes and pushed the boundaries of physics, computing, and telecommunications. IEEE recently celebrated some of the achievements of Bell Labs in areas other than communications, which include:

  • Molecular Beam Epitaxy. This was a chip-making process that is key to the manufacture of modern chips and lasers.
  • Fractional Quantum Hall Effect. This physics breakthrough defined how electrons could become entangled, which led to the development of quantum computing.
  • Convolutional Neural Networks. This is a specialized deep learning model inspired by the human visual cortex, which has become the basis for modern AI.
  • Super Resolution Fluorescence Microscopy. This is a series of techniques that allow images to have resolution higher than the limits imposed by the diffraction limit of light, which has had major benefits in biological research.
  • Charged-coupled Device. This is a light-sensitive integrated circuit that captures images by converting photons into electrons, and which is the basis for digital imaging, medical imaging, and modern astronomy.

Bell Labs is now owned by Nokia, which acquired the company when it purchased Alcatel-Lucent. Lucent was the technology spin-off formed at the breakup of AT&T into the Baby Bell companies.

Congress Active with Broadband Bills

We’re near the end of the year, and Congress is recessed until the new year. That hasn’t stopped Congress from introducing interesting new bills related to broadband. Any bill introduced in the first year of Congress is not automatically carried over to the second year session, but I assume these new bills are meant for deliberation in 2026.

Support for Non-Deployment Funds. Senators Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) introduced the Supporting U.S. Critical Connectivity and Economic Strategy and Security for BEAD Act. This legislation would authorize States to use any remaining BEAD non-deployment funds that were not used to build infrastructure. The bill directs NTIA to give these funds to States to support functions like enhancing public safety, improving network resiliency, strengthening national security, and developing a qualified workforce for emerging technologies. This is a major issue since non-deployment has grown to over 21 billion, which is half of the $42.5 billion BEAD funding.

To some degree, this law feels redundant because it reiterates the same use of non-deployment funds that was directed in the original IIJA legislation that created BEAD. The need for this bill is only an issue because NTIA has been referring to the monies not used for broadband deployment as ‘savings’, which they want to return to the U.S. Treasury. If enacted, this would be Congress’s way of emphasizing that it meant what was written in the original law. If enacted, it also means that a lot more of the BEAD funding could have been used to build fiber and other long-term technologies instead of going to satellite broadband.

Expand Mental Telehealth. Representatives Andrea Salinas (D-OR) and Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) reintroduced the bipartisan Home-Based Telemental Health Care Act. If enacted, the legislation would expand access to telehealth services, including mental health and substance use care. The legislation is aimed at rural Americans who have barriers to in-person care, especially for individuals working in the farming, fishing, and forestry industries.

The legislation would create a new grant program that would provide funding for mental health and substance use care for people living in designated Health Professional Shortage Areas. The grants would be managed by the Department of Health and Human Services in consultation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Funding could be used to expand telemental health services, including providing broadband access and devices to use telehealth technology. The grants would also explore the feasibility of expanding the program to in-person services. The bill authorizes $10 million in grants for fiscal years 2025 through 2029.

Sunset Section 230 Immunity. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Ashley Moody (R-FL), and Peter Welch (D-VT) introduced the Sunset Section 230 Act. The legislation would repeal Section 230 of the FCC rules two years after the date of enactment. Section 230 was created in 1996, as a part of the Communications Decency Act. The purpose of Section 230 is to grant limited immunity to online platforms for user-generated content. Section 230 also shields online platforms from any damages from good-faith efforts to moderate or block objectionable content.

The stated purpose of the new legislation is to allow the public to hold platforms accountable for allowing illegal content, child exploitation, and misinformation, based on the underlying premise that the big web platforms currently have near-immunity for damages that arise from their “profits over people” operating model. This is going to be a controversial law, and opponents of the legislation argue that the law will stifle free speech, force platforms to over-censor to avoid massive lawsuits, harm small online platforms, and fail to address underlying issues of harmful content amplification by big tech.

 

Security as an ISP Service

Several industry news outlets are reporting on a recent survey from Parks Associated that shows that 19% of homes with broadband have a professionally monitored security system, and another 7% pay for partial security services like video storage monitoring alerts.

A few other interesting statistics related to home security. 33% of broadband subscribers have a smart camera of some sort. Roughly 78% of homes that own a security system pay for an external service, such as professional monitoring, self-monitoring, or video storage. The Parks research shows that the average fee for home security services in $54 per month.

A decade ago, a number of my ISP clients offered security services. The ISPs either sold or charged a monthly fee for the security hardware and largely outsourced the monitoring to one of the big security companies like ADT, Brinks, or Vivint.

I recently looked at the products and prices of ISPs of all sizes across a several-state area. I was surprised to find that almost none of the ISPs offer security services today. That surprised me because a decade ago, I would have found a quarter of ISPs offering security services.

There are various reasons why small ISPs exited the business. I know two ISPs that sold their security customers to one of the big security companies. They told me that the big companies were offering a sales price per customer that they couldn’t turn down. When I see the average monthly fee of $54, I can understand why security companies are willing to buy existing customers.

Some of my clients were never comfortable with the financial risk of something going wrong with a security system. They were uncomfortable sending security monitoring to a distant company they didn’t know. The downside risk of a big lawsuit from a security system failure felt larger than what the revenue stream could justify.

A lot of ISPs were not comfortable selling hardware and software systems that they didn’t know a lot about. Some got frustrated when vendors suddenly stopped supporting the hardware they had chosen. A lot of ISPs were uncomfortable with the entire process of selling expensive systems to homeowners at a markup.

ISPs in the security business said that the business required a lot of truck rolls and meant answering a lot of calls from customers. I think some of the ISPs in the security business figured it was less profitable because of these extra costs.

I remember that fifteen and twenty years ago, the whole ISP industry spent a lot of time talking about wanting to be something more than a dumb pipe provider. They believed that ISPs that only sold broadband connections and nothing else had a bleak long-term future.

And yet, my recent investigation of ISPs showed across anentire region of the country where almost every ISP is a dumb pipe provider. Most ISPs are now comfortable with this business model. I can think of several changes that have made ISPs more comfortable with this concept. One is that ISPs generally have a much larger market penetration rate than they did a decade ago. In most markets, roughly 90% of homes buy some sort of broadband, while penetration rates twenty years ago were a third of that. ISPS generally also charge a lot more today. When broadband was a new product, pricing was often set to lure customers to try broadband and to stay on the network. An ISP with a good broadband product and good customer service doesn’t have the same worries it had when broadband was a new product.

I know some ISPs who still happily offer security services. I also know some who offer unique services. For example, a few operate in seasonal areas and offer cheap packages of cameras along with water and fire monitors for absentee landlords as a way to convince them to pay for broadband all year. But the bottom line is that most ISPs seem to be happy being dumb pipe providers and aren’t willing to pursue other product lines cause a lot of work or that that have a questionable return.

Seven Stages of the Internet

In October, Dr. Mallik Tatipamula, the CTO of Ericsson, and Dr. Vinton Cerf, a VP and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google, published an article in IEEE Spectrum that postulated that there will be seven stages of the Internet over time.

They say that we have already experienced the first three stages, which include the original Internet, integrating the Internet into mobile devices, and extending the Internet to connect to Internet of Things (IoT) devices. The article postulates about what comes next.

The following are the seven stages:

The Original Internet. The objective of the original Internet was to connect computers and servers to share information. This evolved into the early World Wide Web, which largely democratized access to information.

The Mobile Internet. This was the process of developing apps to take advantage of the ability of mobile phones to connect to the Internet. This has evolved into an explosion of social media and transformational applications, like the ability to make cashless payments using phones. This opened the Internet to those around the world.

The Internet of Things (IoT). This phase of the Internet extended connectivity to machines other than computers and phones. The world is now full of smart appliances, connected cars, sensors, smart factories, and smart city applications.

The Internet of Agents (IoA). We’re now entering the next phase of the Internet where connectivity will be ubiquitously extended to AI agents that perceive, reason, and collaborate. Virtual AI agents include things like digital assistants, coding copilots, workflow orchestrators, and trading algorithms. Physical AI agents will manifest in devices like autonomous cars, drones, industrial robots, and smart medical devices.

The Internet of Senses (IoS). They predict the next phase of the Internet will integrate wearables that extend human perception of touch, taste, and smell. For example, a potential buyer will be able to ‘feel’ the texture of clothing online, or smell a perfume before buying it. These changes will come through advances in haptic wearables, digital olfaction, and brain-computer interfaces.

The Ubiquitous Internet. This will arrive when there is seamless global access to broadband across land, sea, air, and space. Every person on the planet and their devices will have access to the Internet.

 The Quantum Internet. The final stage of the Internet will integrate quantum information into the Internet using qubits and quantum entanglement. This will create ultra-secure communications that are resistant to interception and hacking, and will have unprecedented precision in measuring time, motion, and the environment.

eduroam – Student Broadband Access

The largest WiFi network you may have never heard about is eduroam. This is a global WiFi roaming network operated by and for the educational community. The eduroam network is huge and is currently available at 38,000 locations in over 100 countries and territories. In 2024, the network logged 8.4 billion authentications of users joining an eduroam WiFi network.

In the U.S., over 3,800 locations representing 1,000 educational institutions (universities, colleges, and research facilities) are part of the eduroam network. In recent years, sponsored by the folks at Internet 2, eduroam has been extended to 1,461 hotspots for K-12 schools, libraries, museums, and community spaces. The K-12 eduroam network is active in Arizona, Connecticut, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. Missouri and Wisconsin are in the process of joining the network.

eduroam operates by letting any student with an eduroam password log in to use WiFi at any node on the network. eduroam stresses security for student and their data. Joining the network doesn’t use a web portal and uses end-to-end encryption using 802.1X, which is an industry standard for port-based network access control (PNAC). Each participant organization must operate a RADIUS authentication server, and a request to join the eduroam network is routed to the home institution to verify the authenticity of the user. User data is only stored at the home location, and nothing is kept on the servers at a remote location.

The network can be expanded as needed to handle emergencies. For example, during the pandemic, many participating institutions established eduroam hotspots in parking lots or common spaces in college communities so that students could access the educational WiFi network.

The benefit to students is obvious. A K-12 student who is part of eduroam can gain access at any node on the eduroam network. These may be installed outdoors at all schools in a community, in libraries, or in a public space of some sort. It gives students access to multiple locations to connect to the school network outside of the home. Students on vacation can gain access if they are near any of the many nodes on the network.

There is a major advantage to universities using the system. Visiting students and professors can gain access to free WiFi without having to ask for credentials from the institution they are visiting. eduroam also comes with a full suite of reports on usage and diagnostics for each institution.

eduroam is being used around the world to extend broadband access. This article documents an eduroam effort in Uganda to extend broadband. The typical user in Uganda uses only 1.7 GB per month of broadband due to cost and data caps on WiFi usage. eduroam was originally extended to 300 locations in Kampala, the capital, like libraries, cafes, hostels, and other public spaces. In 2022, eduroam was extended to 18 more towns with support from the Internet Society Foundation BOLT program. To overcome local challenges, many of the 600 remote hotspots are solar-powered.

 

Let the 6G Hype Begin

In case you haven’t been paying attention, wireless vendors are busy working towards the introduction of 6G starting around 2030. The industry has introduced a new generation of cellular technology every ten years since the first 1G network was introduced in 1981.

I’ve been reading a lot of industry press on the upcoming 6G generation of cellular. I have to admit that some of the claims gave me a good laugh, because the vendors in the industry are touting a lot of potential applications for 6G that seem to be a stretch, just like happened during the lead-up to 5G.

Before describing a few of the promises I’ve been reading for 6G, let me remind you of some of what we were promised with 5G that never really materialized. 5G was touted to be bringing:

  • A superfast network since 5G will enable clusters of 5G small cell sites that will bring the network close to everybody.
  • Super-low latency of 4 milliseconds, even in moving vehicles. It was promised that 5G would be able to compete with fiber for functions like real-time gaming and stock trading.
  • Speeds up to 10 Gbps by the widespread introduction of frequencies between 20 and 60 MHz.
  • A greatly increased capacity for simultaneous connections that would mean 5G subscriptions for cars, smart watches, and the many 5G-enabled smart devices in the home.
  • 5G would enable new technologies like stores having 5G-enabled hologram displays throughout a store. Experts envisioned a 5G network strung along every street and road to enable smart self-driving cars. There was even talk about being able to use 5G to enable medical operations using robots conducted by remote doctors.

The coming introduction of 6G also includes a lot of claimed benefits. 6G will:

  • Enable immersive communication and human-machine interactions. Use cases include immersive eXtended Reality (XR), remote multi-sensory telepresence, holographic communications, haptic sensors and actuators, and multi-sensory interfaces.
  • Lower operator costs will mean affordable and meaningful connectivity for all. This means universal coverage, including sparsely populated areas. 6G will create a seamless interface between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.
  • Be able to connect to a massive number of devices that will enable smart cities, smart cars, environmental monitoring, and sensors for agriculture. (Sounds like the same claim made for 5G).
  • Will enable connections to smart machines for the remote operation of robots, autonomous factories, and the creation of digital twins for factories, health care, and other complex use cases.
  • Peak data rates between 50 and 100 Gbps.
  • A target air interface latency between 0.1 ms and 1 ms.
  • Terrestrial-based locating technologies to locate objects within 1 to 10 centimeters.
  • AI-related capabilities to support distributed data processing, distributed learning, AI computing, AI model execution, and AI model inference.

Just like with 5G, the real-life implementation of 6G will be determined by the functions that wireless carriers can monetize. 5G is outperforming the hype in some areas, and most urban 5G networks today are considerably faster than the 100 Mbps goal included in the early 5G hype, yet most of the promised 5G functionality never materialized when carriers found that customers prefer free WiFi to paying for more cellular subscriptions. The same is going to be true with 6G. It’s hard to imagine that introducing 6G will automatically trigger widespread use of multi-sensory telepresence or somehow bring cell towers to rural America. But you can’t blame the vendors who want to get carriers excited about 6G and be willing to pay for the upgrades.