ATIS promotes path to 6G wireless.

The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) has issued a call-to-action statement urging U.S. government agencies, academic institutions, and industry leaders to collaborate on a plan to ensure U.S. leadership for 6G wireless service rollout.

ATIS urges a “holistic” approach to 6G, beginning with research and development that addresses U.S. needs, a commitment to standardization, and full-scale commercialization. ATIS said 6G will apply new cognitive, predictive, and contextual capabilities and include: massive amounts of edge intelligence that will enable new microservices operating on the network edge; communications in the high GHz and THz bands; and users self-defining unique security and privacy perimeters.

The Japanese government and Japanese industry partners, have already started working on a roadmap to 6G rollout in 2030. While the U.S. wireless industry hasn’t even fully grasped 5G capabilities, or come close to establishing the infrastructure requirements for 5G, or close to hitting the peak of the 4G LTE market, ATIS asserted that the timeline for 6G development in the U.S. has already begun.

“Today’s investments in 5G networks, devices and applications already point toward the future opportunities for 6G,” ATIS said in its May 20 statement. ATIS Vice President of Technology and Solutions Mike Nawrocki added, “Industry and government have started collaboration to create the 6G future, but this work must be amplified now to position the U.S. as the leader in telehealth, smart agriculture, distance learning, digitized commerce, and artificial intelligence.”