Will There Be a 7G? Paper Asks What Would Justify It
The paper argues that 7G should not be an inevitable numbering exercise or a list of more ambitious radio targets. Its justification depends on whether post-6G systems introduce needs or coordination problems that 6G/6G-Advanced, Wi-Fi, NTN, private cellular, neutral-host deployments, edge-cloud platforms, and complementary wireless and software-based systems cannot meet. It develops a readiness framework covering demand-led need, system-level discontinuity, coordination value, sustainability and circularity, trust, and geopolitical viability, then applies it to candidate 7G discontinuities such as agentic network operation, RF-native computing, quantum-enabled interworking, policy-aware spectrum governance, grid-interactive infrastructure, outcome-assured services, and regionalized standards.
This paper argues that 7G should not be treated as an inevitable numbering exercise or as a catalogue of more ambitious radio targets.
- ksec
It needs to work backwards, much like Video Codec and ask what do the stakeholders really want or need?
We are closing in to rolling out the last / final phase of 5G. And yet none of the Massive MIMO on FDD is happening. We are still stuck on 32T32R, hardly that impressive considering we have that in LTE already. Not to mention the insane complexity increase from 4G to 5G. And judging from the previews of 6G that seems to be event worst.
If you ask an average user, they will tell you they don't feel much different between 4G and 5G. Yes there are capacity increase and other things. But at this stage I don't think the benefits outweigh the cost of switching. That is both from MNOs and End user perspective.
- Founderarcstone
I sure hope we see 7G one day soon!
- walrus01
Note that "G" generally is a marketing term for consumers, the actual tech is 3GPP rev-whatever
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3GPP
Like 3GPP release 15 or 16 is what we currently know as a lot of in production LTE/LTE-Advanced stuff.
- Havoc
There will always be new Gs...marketing teams require it.
I hope they go into the direction wifi is taking though - stability rather than speed.
I never think about cell speeds being slow anymore but irritation at lack of coverage is still frequent. Esp in urban jungles where buildings block it
- BlackRabbit1
5G SA isn't still available for the broad masses yet.. and they are talking of 7G?
I had the chance to test it in Germany with Telefonica as it can be activated for free. It saves a lot of battery compared to 5G NSA. But they still had smaller problems with hand-overs to LTE and GSM.
Colleagues told me that the 5G NSA battery consumption problem is pretty much a solved problem with other basebands and only Pixels are famous for suffering this much.
- jruohonen
Well, I suppose the rolling out of 5G must happen at some point, but otherwise his/her take in Section III.A is spot on and the most important takeaway.
- krackers
I sure hope not: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train_to_the_End_of_the_World
- suncore
Working on everything from 1G to 6G, I can tell you for sure there will be a 7G whether we need it or not...