While on Earth the electronics giants are challenging each other for 5G higher up in space, another battle has just begun: who will win the 6G challenge?
The space around Earth could very soon welcome the first two satellites "signed" by Huawei. Already in July. The indiscretion would come from internal sources of the company, which, questioned, has not yet confirmed but neither denied a move that would put it immediately in competition with two giants of the caliber of Amazon and SpaceX.
If nothing else, it would be an important signal from a company literally put on his knees in one of his best business, that of pocket technology, because of the well-known ban of Donald Trump, which, moreover, the successor Joe Biden does not seem at all willing to loosen. So Huawei would have thought to move quickly to the facts after having manifested at the beginning of the month the intention to have the 6G in full swing already in 2030. And in order not to give an advantage to the rivals on the front of the broadband via satellite, Amazon and Starlink of SpaceX of the visionary Elon Musk that are going to populate the terrestrial orbit, Huawei would be considering the possibility to accelerate the times.
6G via satellite: the challenge of Huawei
According to what is rumored in these hours, Huawei would have made agreements with two Chinese partners to send in orbit two satellites.
It is difficult that these rumors are unfounded, both because they come from a source that in the past has provided correct anticipations on the moves of the company, and because the two partners are in the public domain.
They would be China Mobile, mobile operator that owns almost 70% of the Chinese market, and China Aerospace, that is the main company for the Chinese space program, also controlled by the State.
The aim would be to obtain data for the development of the sixth generation network infrastructure, the 6G, to be used during the Huawei Developers Conference in September.
The 6G will allow us to talk to the network infrastructure about 50 times faster than 5G, which will not only facilitate simple internet browsing but also allow us to offer better quality streaming content, upload and download heavy files at a faster speed and bring the internet connection almost anywhere in the world. Satellite broadband will be for everyone and will come from the sky.
The result will be thanks to a substantial difference between the two network technologies: 5G involves radio base stations installed on the ground, while 6G, which will operate at even higher frequencies, will use satellite networks for data and signal transmission.
The goal is as ambitious as it is titanic from the point of view of financial effort. It was in 2019 when Huawei declared its intention to launch ten thousand satellites in a few years, with an investment that the first estimates have quantified more than ten billion dollars. It would be impossible to compete with giants of the caliber of Amazon and Starlink-SpaceX without putting into account an investment of at least six figures, right?