5G has not yet completed its deployment and 6G is already on everyone’s lips. The Minister of Higher Education and Research, Sylvie Retailleau, and Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister Delegate for the Digital Transition and Telecommunications, announced the priority research program (PEPR) Networks of the future, which is part of the France 2030 plan. The objective: to anticipate the arrival of the next generation of mobile networks.
With a budget of 65 million euros, this program will initially aim to accelerate the development of 5G and its uses, taking into account environmental and societal issues. 5G is seen as a way to overcome the physical constraints of wired networks to develop a new value chain. The future is of course not forgotten: this PEPR will coordinate the various French players in the sector for research and development around 6G. This could offer speeds 100 times greater than 5G and pave the way for new uses, to bring out a world more connected than ever.
“We are working on key 6G technologies”
Dimitri Ktenas, co-director of PEPR Réseaux du Futur (CEA), says: “For more than twenty years, the CEA has been carrying out technological research in the field of telecommunications with the aim of developing new concepts and evaluating their contribution to the emergence of new products or services. In particular, we are working on the key technologies of 6G, whether for the lower layers and the hardware or for the network and software aspects. Beyond the mobilization of varied and complementary expertise, PEPR 5G will be able to rely on the CEA’s ability to lead ecosystems involving academic and industrial partners and to support technology transfer to industry.“The road will be long, especially given the issues in which the political world is heavily involved. But the quest for a certain technological sovereignty requires fundamental research. We will of course follow the rest of the story.
Unveiled on October 12, 2021 by Emmanuel Macron, the France 2030 investment plan is in line with the France Relance plan. The ambitions are great, since it is a question of positioning France in “leader of the world of tomorrow” For “to produce better, to live better and to understand better”.
The announced investment is 54 billion euros over five years, including 8.4 billion for the first year, with 1,752 innovative projects supported. The idea is to share this budget equally between the decarbonisation of the economy and support for emerging players who bring innovation. At the maneuver, we find the ANR (National Research Agency), the ADEME (Ecological Transition Agency), Bpifrance and the Caisse des dépôts et consignations under the control of CSIA (Comité de surveillance des dépôts d’avenir).