Can 6G Live Up to the Hype?

Plus, this week's top stories from IoT For All

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IoT For All
March 06, 2025

Hello readers!

Welcome to this week’s IoT For All newsletter where we’ll be talking about rumblings of 6G from MWC Barcelona, the utility of remote IoT, how to navigate the eSIM future, and more!

Can 6G Live Up to the Hype?

This week, Spain hosting MWC Barcelona, the annual, international, connectivity convention once known as “Mobile World Congress” but which now goes by its nickname. Organized by the GSM Association (GSMA), the event started as a “Digital Cellular Radio” conference in the late 1980s. Now, it’s the premier event for mobile technology, and the biggest thing that both is and isn’t there is 6G.

Technically, commercial 6G systems aren’t going to launch until around 2030. The development process, undertaken by the standardization body 3GPP, is a long and winding one. That’s why the first hints of 5G’s successor are cropping up now—some five years in advance.

NTT and Nokia, for their part, have taken the show as an opportunity to showcase an In-network Service Acceleration Platform (ISAP)—a technology that allows certain computational tasks to be migrated from devices to the network itself.

As NTT explains:

Think of it as a restaurant kitchen operating during a high-stake dinner rush. Instead of each chef (device) preparing every component of a dish from scratch under immense time pressure, imagine if some of the ingredients could be prepped in a central kitchen (network). This system would allow chefs to focus on assembling and enhancing the final presentation, thus ensuring quicker service and higher quality dishes.

But the fundamental characteristics of 6G are still very much up for debate. Features that have been proposed include everything from AI native integration to radar-like sensing capabilities to better support for hordes of IoT devices. Meanwhile, foundational questions about how much 6G’s core should depart from the existing 5G infrastructure are subject to wildly differing opinions.

For now, 5G continues to truck along. Samsung has announced trials with Hyundai Motor to launch an advanced private 5G network inside the world’s largest automobile plant. And T-Mobile spent its time in the spotlight touting the nationwide launch of “5G Advanced,” saying that its customers have already been benefiting from AI network management far in advance of the launch of 6G.

Some telcos are certainly shying away from 6G talk, sheepish from a lack of return on investment in 5G. But as 2030 approaches, their efforts will only be more futile. If the AI boom slows down, much of the techno-optimism could shift toward 6G.

After all, the next big thing always demands to exist.

📖 Top Articles

How to Choose the Right Module for the IoT eSIM Future

The global demand for AI-integrated IoT products is growing at an unprecedented rate. To stay ahead, manufacturers and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) must focus on scalable, secure, and future-proof connectivity solutions that support seamless global operations. Cellular connectivity, particularly with eSIM and Remote SIM Provisioning (RSP) technologies, has become a key enabler of IoT deployments, ensuring security, flexibility, and efficient fleet management. 

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably hearing a lot about AI. And, while most of us have fooled around with LLMs like ChatGPT, the data shows that only around 28% of people use generative AI for work regularly. If you’ve never created an AI workflow, maybe you’re even wondering what the big deal is. Here, I’ll help you understand AI workflows, what they can do, and how to set one up for yourself. 

Remote IoT refers to the ability to monitor, manage, and control Internet of Things (IoT) devices in distant or hard-to-reach locations. By leveraging cellular, satellite, or hybrid network technologies, businesses can ensure their IoT deployments remain operational no matter the environment. Remote IoT eliminates the constraints of physical distance, providing a seamless flow of data and interaction between devices and their users.

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🎙️ The IoT For All Podcast

This week, we spoke with Martin Nord, Chief Technology and Product Officer at Com4, too discuss navigating modern IoT connectivity. The conversation covers key connectivity challenges across industries, the impact of iSIM and multi-IMSI, customer-centric IoT strategies, satellite IoT, the transformative potential of IoT and AI, low-power wide-area networks, and understanding total cost of ownership for successful IoT deployments.