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Will 6G tech deliver where ‘overhyped’ 5G didn’t? An expert sees a holographic future

  • British professor Jiangzhou Wang tells a conference in Beijing that he is disappointed with 5G’s failure
  • It hasn’t delivered a blockbuster app but the next generation could be different, he says

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About 3.65 million 5G base stations have been built across China.  Photo: AFP
Zhang Tongin Beijing
5G communications technology has been overhyped but 6G may live up to the revolutionary promise that its predecessor did not, a British expert told a leading tech conference in China.
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Jiangzhou Wang, a professor at the University of Kent’s school of engineering, told a technology conference in Beijing on Friday that 5G had yet to result in a killer app.

“I am objectively disappointed with 5G,” Shanghai-based financial news site Yicai quoted Wang as saying at the Sohu Annual Sci-Tech Conference.

“In the 5G era, we have not seen a blockbuster application for ordinary consumers, nor has it been widely applied in vertical industries. Future 6G technology might be revolutionary rather than incremental.

“5G has been overhyped, as if it can do everything.”

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China has built 6 times the number of 5G towers in 3 months than the US has installed in 2 years

China has built 6 times the number of 5G towers in 3 months than the US has installed in 2 years

When mobile telecommunications made the leap from 2G to 3G, users were no longer limited to text messages but could also send images and music. This spurred the growth of mobile versions of chat apps such as QQ, games, and streaming media.

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