Editor’s word: Qualcomm supplied journey, lodging and different accomodations related to Snapdragon Summit.
MAUI—Qualcomm CEO Cristiano laid out his imaginative and prescient of the near-term future right this moment in a keynote speech on the Snapdragon Summit. Contemplating the thought of AI-imbued private units creating an “ecosystem of you,” and discussing how the edge-cloud continuum will create new agent-centric experiences, he highlighted the criticality of connectivity in that rising paradigm.
Amon described a “dynamic, adaptive community of intelligence…That’s extremely thrilling.” So is that this subsequent half: he stated 6G will present connectivity and notion (based mostly on highly-contextual sensor knowledge, eg your constellation of private units) and that, “It’s before you suppose…We’re able to have pre-commercial units with 6G as early as 2028.”
Qualcomm is a key participant within the mobile standardization course of that performs out inside 3GPP, in addition to the elemental analysis that informs the standard-setting course of. This offers the corporate an enormous quantity of credibility relating to calling its pictures — and appending particular timelines to these pictures.
3GPP kicked off 6G research earlier this yr; Launch 20, masking 5G-Superior capabilities and 6G research objects, is monitoring for a practical freeze in early 2027. Launch 21 will comprise the primary 6G requirements and it doesn’t currenlty have a agency timeline. That stated, the consensus is to anticipate standards-based business 6G round 2030.
Additionally of word, Qualcomm is a member of the recently-established Verizon 6G Innovation Discussion board alsongisde Ericsson, Meta, Nokia and Samsung. Learn extra about that from my interview with Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio, however the takeaway is that Tenorio careworn that 6G has to come back to market with significant, new use instances.
Additionally word right here Meta’s involvement — Qualcomm is supporting Meta’s ongoing growth of linked, sensible glasses. To deliver that thought collectively, one of many use instances Amon spotlighted in his keynote was round glasses as an enter/output mechanism for an agentic system able to principally working your life–calendar administration, customized suggestions (and actioning these suggestions; reserving a restaurant reservation, for instance), sending emails, and many others…
Amon stated, “For the age of AI, connectivity is evolving so it really can ship on this imaginative and prescient.” He stated 6G is “designed to be the connection between the cloud and the sting units.”
Agent-centric experiences was considered one of six traits Amon tied collectively throughout his keynote. The others had been “AI is the brand new UI” — an thought the corporate seeded at this occasion final yr — basic shifts in compute architectures (see earlier feedback on the edge-cloud continuum), the hybridization of AI fashions, the rising relevancy of edge knowledge, and future, perceptive 6G networks. Extra on all of that because the occasion continues.
Take a look at this report I not too long ago publisehd for a deep dive into 6G spectrum, requirements, use instances and extra. And learn this profile of Qualcomm Vice President of Technical Requirements Juan Montojo-Bennassar to get an understanding of what the work of standardization really takes. Spoiler alert: “Innovaiton doesn’t come free of charge.”