Mike Peterson
Apple and other prominent technology and networking companies have joined an industry group that's working to advance cellular technology in North America to 6G and beyond.
The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) on Thursday announced the addition of 11 Founding Members, including Apple, Charter, Google, VMWare, HP, and Cisco, among others.
"Designed to set the foundation for a vibrant marketplace for North American innovation in future generations of mobile technology, the Next G Alliance is named after its primary goal: to establish North American preeminence in the 5G evolutionary path and 6G development," ATIS said in a statement.
According to the group, its work "will encompass the full lifecycle of research and development, manufacturing, standardization and market readiness."
The new group added that it would be holding its first meeting on Monday, Nov. 16. In that meeting, members will set the group's overall direction and strategy.
Apple, for its part, has only just released its first batch of 5G-compatible iPhone models in October. All models of the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro lineup support mmWave 5G in the U.S., and sub-6GHz 5G elsewhere.
In September, AT&T CEO Jeff McElfresh revealed that the carrier is already working on 6G technology, though it's likely that the new generation of wireless connectivity won't be available for years to come.
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
William Gallagher
34 Comments
How about focusing on brining a stable 5G network to the country with consistent speeds before starting on something that we won’t see for 6-10 years.
Wait until David Icke hears about this.
Considering 5G is really unnecessary what is the point of working on 6G. if the primary goal is to improve range so that it will provide broadband access to rural areas and an alternate solution for those of us in single provider areas. I have two to pick from: Charter Cable -> 200/5 faster speed, but major reliability and outage issues*, CenturyLink: 40/3 and ultra-reliable (rarely goes out)
*Advertised speed is never met and due to my coastal environment there are reliability and outage issues. There is a truck on my 1/4 mile dead end road multiple times per week and there are only 40 houses. I thought about switching because it was cheaper, but I'll take reliability over speed every time.
Hoping sometime of cellular internet access will make it our way.
So, 5G was no good? (Sorry for the sarcasm but meant for fun)