5G : THE NETWORK FOR BUSINESS
“ We started with 3G and said this would be the last generation and we were wrong . With 5G we are conscious that we shouldn ’ t make anything that limits adding any functionality further down the line ”
– Jonas Näslund , Head of Strategy at Ericsson ’ s Business Radio division
6G ? When trying to map the evolution of 2G through to 5G , it is difficult to pin down when , or if , one morphed into the next . Andersson estimated that 5G had been in the pipeline since around 2012 or 2013 , following Ericsson ’ s vision for connected devices . “ We set out our vision for 50 billion connected devices and it soon became apparent that 4G alone would not be able to cope with this level of connectivity ,” he explains . “ Machine-machine connections number at around 300 million , but this will increase massively , more than anything else . But this is more the result of what we are doing and not the starting point for 5G — we have to ask how we build a network that can handle these connected devices .”
“ We started with 3G and said this would be the last generation and we were wrong . With 5G we are conscious that we shouldn ’ t make anything that limits adding any functionality further down the line . A 10 year cycle thought process might not cut it anymore .” And what about 6G , has this been touted at all ? “ There was a Justin Bieber advert on SuperBowl that talked about 6G , so who knows , maybe he is the 6G champion ,” Näslund says .
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