Back in 2015, the director of a British 5G research centre declared “5G will be the first generation of reliable connectivity to the extent we won’t have anything called 6G.”
Ignoring the fact that one project in Northern Finland has already started work on 6G networks, the quote encapsulates the nature of the 5G hypetrain.
Its supporters have promised not just the faster speeds and greater capacity to be expected of every major iteration of mobile technology, but revolutionary applications and an era of ubiquitous connectivity that will change the world forever.
“It’s been a pissing content,” observed Paul Hjul, the director of Crystal Web at the recent Broadband World Forum. “Hype is a good thing, but it can make you look like you’re more innovative than you actually are.”