“Opening a Completely New World” Samsung Electronics Leads the Race for 6G Technology Dominance (Comprehensive)

'Reinventing Communication' First-ever Network Equipment Unpack Event Held
Major Unveiling of New 5G Network Solutions Including Three Core Chips
Strategy to Maintain Leadership in 6G Based on 5G Technology Competitiveness
Ministry of Science and ICT Holds Public-Private Joint '6G Strategy Meeting'... Establishes '6G R&D Execution Plan'

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] "Now it's 6G's turn. 6G will open a completely new world of opportunities."

At the first-ever network equipment unpacking event held online at 11 p.m. on the 22nd under the theme ‘Samsung Networks: Redefined,’ Choi Seong-hyun, Head of the Next Generation Communication Research Center at Samsung Research, stated, "Next-generation mobile communication technology is one of the most important areas of Samsung Electronics' research," clearly expressing the intention to secure leadership in the 6G market.

Samsung Electronics established the Next Generation Communication Research Center under Samsung Research in May 2019, the first year of 5G commercialization, and early on began research on 6G preemptive technologies. Last year, it was the first among major telecom operators to release a 6G white paper titled ‘A New Dimension of Hyper-Connected Experience,’ demonstrating its determination to lead 6G technology. This aligns with Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s visit earlier this year, where he emphasized that "securing future technology is a matter of survival."

Choi said, "Samsung Electronics started 5G research in 2009, even before 4G was commercialized, and succeeded in the world's first 5G commercialization. Similarly, we are already preparing for 6G." He added, "6G will combine various technologies to change the paradigm of immersive experiences and services." Samsung Electronics expects that once 6G is commercialized and communication performance improves, services such as ▲ultra-realistic extended reality (XR) ▲high-precision mobile holograms ▲digital twins will emerge. Choi predicted, "In particular, the XR era using three-dimensional holograms will become commonplace, breaking down boundaries in entertainment, medical care, science, education, and manufacturing." The commercialization of 6G is expected around 2028 to 2030.

Choi Seong-hyun, Head of the Next Generation Communication Research Center at Samsung Research, is introducing 6G at the "Samsung Network: Redefining Communication" event held online on the 22nd.

Samsung Electronics’ first-ever network equipment unpacking event attracted attention as a strategic move to enhance competitiveness and market share in the 5G market and to continue leadership into 6G. At this event, Samsung unveiled a large number of new 5G network solutions, with three next-generation core chips for base stations being representative. The core chips include the 2nd generation 5G modem chip, the 3rd generation millimeter-wave wireless communication chip, and an integrated digital-to-analog conversion chip for wireless communication. These core chips share common features of improving performance and power efficiency while reducing base station size. The three core chips are scheduled to be installed in next-generation high-performance base station lineups launching next year.

Industry experts believe that to secure leadership in the 6G market, influence in the 5G equipment market must be increased. Since 5G was introduced in non-standalone mode (NSA), sharing LTE networks, it is highly likely that 6G will also be introduced initially in a form linked with 5G base stations. At that time, it is common to use equipment from the same manufacturer as existing equipment, so the 5G market share is likely to carry over to 6G market share. However, according to market research firm Dell'Oro, Samsung Electronics’ global 5G equipment market share in the first quarter of this year was only in the 3% range. This is a gap compared to market leader Huawei (27%), as well as Nokia (16%), Ericsson (16%), ZTE (9%), and Cisco (6%).

On this day, Choi mentioned Samsung Electronics’ recent success in demonstrating a 6G communication system in the terahertz (THz) band in collaboration with the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), emphasizing it as "an achievement showing development progress." This verified the potential use of the terahertz band in 6G mobile communications. The terahertz band, ranging from 100 gigahertz (GHz) to 10 THz, is a high-frequency band where higher frequency bands allow wider communication bandwidths, making it suitable for ultra-high-speed communication.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The government has also rolled up its sleeves to secure leadership in 6G technology in the global market. On the same day, the Ministry of Science and ICT held a public-private joint ‘6G Strategy Meeting’ and finalized the ‘6G Research and Development (R&D) Execution Plan.’ To secure next-generation core source technologies, preempt international standards and patents, and establish research and industrial infrastructure, ten strategic technologies including low-earth orbit communication satellites and ultra-precision network technologies were selected, with an investment of 17.9 billion KRW this year and 200 billion KRW by 2025. Additionally, the Institute for Information & Communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for joint research cooperation, officially launching bilateral 6G joint research from this year.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.