China has shown the world its technological masculinity by launching 6G satellites into space. A 6G satellite along with 12 others were launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Centre in the Shanxi Province. This comes at a moment when many of the western nations are showing its reluctance to accept Huawei’s 5G technology and instead they are relying on other operators including Swedish Ericson and Japan-based Rakuten. Even though there is no internationally defined specification for the 6G network, experts say that 6G would be many times faster than 5G.
5G networks operate in millimetre-wave frequencies between 30 and 300 Gigahertz which is 10-100 times higher to the 4G network. India is still struggling with the availability of 4G networks in rural and semi-urban places, while there are cases still pending against the allocation of 2G spectrum.
“The satellite, known as Tianyan-5, is a remote-sensing satellite jointly developed by the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu Guoxing Aerospace Technology, and Beijing Weina Xingkong Technology. In addition to Earth observations, the satellite will test a high-frequency terahertz communication payload that could send data at speeds several times faster than 5G”, Reports popularmechanics.com
Dr Diep Nguyen, Senior Lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney’s School of Electrical and Data Engineering, said “Based on 5G, which was being talked about back in 2013-14, I would say there are around five or six years before the next generation,” He also said that people are thinking about the next generation of networks. But it takes time to convert ideas into a usable product.
Posing his optimism on clean energy usage, Dr Nguyen said: “Also, when you think about existing infrastructure like data centres and the amount of energy they use, 6G will be more energy-efficient and that will help reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we produce.”
It will take years for China to develop 6G technology in a usable form, but they are ahead of any nation in the region. In the 5th generation warfare or Hybrid warfare, information technology and its speed have an integral role to play. The Chinese Global Television Network has claimed that the nation increases its funds for the Research and Development 17% per annum, while the U.S increases its spending by just 4.3%. The state-run media outlet has also said that China is all set to be more innovative. This should be seen as another attempt to cement its global posturing as the next superpower.
India too should be worried about China’s technological might. The conflict between both the nations has reached a point where back to normalcy is not a near possibility. Without investing in R&D and fast-tracking innovations, India’s prospects of becoming a regional superpower look dim. China may not be able to roll out 6G technology quickly, but their pace of converting imagination into technology is a lesson that India needs to learn.
