Yawning about 6G?

Most people outside the communications industry will be unaffected and largely unconcerned about Mobile World Congress happening. But even many who are in the computing and software industries might not have to be too interested.

Yes, every next-generation mobile platform has featured higher capacity (speeds, bandwidth) and lower latency. Sometimes that really makes a difference, enabling new and compelling features. Text messaging doesn’t take lots of bandwidth, but it arguably was a “killer app” for 2G. Steaming video enabled by 4G networks might be in the same category.

Most observers might agree that proposed 3G apps actually did not emerge until the time of 4G. But most assessments of new killer features or apps since 4G have yet to emerge. 

We might note that the hoped-for advances often happen only in every other generation of networks, as hyped apps for any particular generation take longer to be commercialized than was hoped. 

That has led to some thinking that “every other generation” of mobile platforms is consequential (in terms of killer features and apps). So 2G and 4G were more consequential, 3G and 5G less so, with perhaps some expectation that 6G could be the platform that is more important than 5G. 

Platform	Theoretical Peak	Real-World Speed	Latency	The Pitch	What Actually Mattered	Verdict
2G	0.3 Mbps (EDGE: 384 Kbps)	0.05–0.1 Mbps	300–1000 ms	"Digital" wireless; wireless internet on your phone	SMS texting — arguably the most transformative app in mobile history. Basic WAP browsing (barely usable). MMS.	Genuine Leap
3G	7.2–21 Mbps (HSPA+)	0.5–3 Mbps	100–500 ms	"Mobile broadband" — internet everywhere, video calling	App stores became viable. Google Maps (basic). Email on the go. Social media feeds (early Twitter/Facebook). The original iPhone ran on 2.5G/3G.	Partial Win
4G LTE	150–1000 Mbps	10–50 Mbps	30–70 ms	"True broadband speeds" — replace home internet, HD video everywhere	Streaming video (Netflix, YouTube) became genuinely good. Uber/rideshare apps. Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok. Video calls (FaceTime, Zoom). Hotspot as home broadband backup.	Genuine Leap
5G (sub-6 GHz)	1–10 Gbps	50–300 Mbps	10–30 ms	"Connected everything" — AR, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, remote surgery	Faster hotspot. Marginally better congestion in stadiums/airports. No killer app has emerged for consumers after 5+ years.	Mostly Hype
5G mmWave	4–20 Gbps	1–3 Gbps (indoors: near zero)	1–5 ms	"Gigabit wireless" — fixed wireless broadband replacement	Fixed wireless home broadband in specific markets. Dense venues. Not useful for mobile users — signal doesn't penetrate walls or travel more than a few hundred feet.	Mostly Hype
6G (proposal)	1 Tbps	???	<1 ms (theoretical)	"Holographic communication," digital twins, connected senses, brain-machine interfaces	Unknown. Researchers candidly admit there is no identified 6G killer app.	Mostly Hype

But we might also be at a point where speeds and feeds simply matter less, as the value of the mobile access connection is less driven by bandwidth and latency, and more by device and app capabilities. 

Perhaps it always is true that the value is driven by “what the platform enables” rather than “bandwidth” the platform supports. That has been true, arguably, for decades, as broadband internet access has gotten better.  

But we might also be at a point where, generally speaking, the networks support “more than enough” bandwidth, and “better than required” latency for most useful consumer or business use cases.