Nokia will lead subsidized EU research on 6G

Finnish network company Nokia will lead an EU-funded study into 6G. Ericsson, among others, is involved in the research. The intention is that Europe will be at the forefront of the development of 6G.

The Hexa-X research has been funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. The aim of the research is to find out what 6G will have to offer and to research techniques that can become part of 6G. Nokia expects that 6G will appear as a technology in mobile networks around 2030. That’s about ten years after 5G, which came about ten years after 4G.

According to Nokia, 6G can focus on a number of objectives, such as energy efficiency to reduce the energy needs of the entire ICT sector and global coverage to also provide remote areas with reach. In addition, 6G must take steps in the field of reliability and of course offer a higher speed and lower latency. In addition to network companies Nokia and Ericsson, Hexa-X also includes providers Orange and Telefónica, chipmaker Intel and various universities. Hexa-X has to run for 2.5 years.

The leadership is in the hands of Nokia Bell Labs, a research arm of the Finnish company. The Nokia company has not made consumer electronics for several years. HMD, also Finnish, has the license to make Nokia phones, while other companies release TVs under the Finnish name, among other things.