Orange recalled on Tuesday that the commercialization of 6G would take place at the start of the next decade. The operator also calls for an end to the name “G”, which designates 2G to 5G networks.
We may be at the dawn of a turning point in the world of mobile networks. After participating in a workshop around the future needs and use cases of 6G organized by 3GPP, the organization which brings together telecommunications operators from around the world around the technical specifications of networks, Orange published a white booklet, including Clubic was able to read this Tuesday, May 14, 2024. In the latter, the historic operator pointed out the aging terminology by generation (2G, 3G, 4G etc.), which according to him conveys preconceived ideas.
Orange, which is excited about 6G, does not want to rush things
It’s no longer a secret, Orange is already preparing for 6G and its crazy speeds. Finally… don’t talk to him too quickly about “6G”. The operator, from a technical point of view, rather sees this future generation as “ an evolution of 5G rather than a major technological disruption », and tempers his arrival. The operator does not see the urgency of standardizing and marketing a new generation of mobile network before 2030, or even 2032.
For Orange, things are clear: 5G networks, with their planned developments, should be sufficient to meet short and medium-term needs. 6G is now seen by the company as “ an improvement of already existing capacities “, and a way to introduce ” new features based on use cases and customer needs », consumers and professionals alike.
The 6G design work therefore involves starting today by defining these use cases and customer needs, by 2030, so as to “ influence the definition of the technical specifications of this future network “. Orange also wants to carry out a sort of clean-up in the naming of the various networks, which according to the company could, in the current state of things, generate erroneous conceptions around future developments.
For the operator, the “G” generation of mobile networks is slightly outdated
Orange makes an interesting criticism of the use of the paradigm of 2G, 3G and other generations. The “G” generational model, used since the deployment of 2G, is mainly used for marketing and sales purposes, as a witness to the evolution of mobile networks. Except that for the operator, this terminology conveys several preconceived ideas which are no longer necessarily true today.
For example, the arrival of a new “G” no longer necessarily brings a fundamentally new mobile Internet experience, unlike previous generations up to 4G. As we said, the deployment of a new generation does not necessarily imply equipping itself with a completely new network, since a large part of the so-called “passive” infrastructure, such as fiber or relay antennas, is reused from one generation to the next.
According to Orange, the marketing focus should rather be on the value brought to customers by new innovations, rather than on the underlying technology. Which gives you an idea of why the company is calling on the industry to rethink the benefits of using generation-based terminology to refer to future developments in mobile networks.
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