A consortium of Japanese technology behemoths, including NTT DOCOMO, NTT, NEC, and Fujitsu, have revealed the results of their real-world 6G speed tests.
The ground-breaking achievement shows the group’s ability to achieve ultra-high-speed 100Gb/s data transmission, marking a pivotal moment in the advent of the 6G wireless communication era.
The four firms, which have been working together on the project since 2021, jointly developed a sub-terahertz 6G device and demonstrated its proficiency in 100Gb/s transmissions in the 100GHz and 300GHz bands over distances of up to 100 meters. The achievement is exceptionally noteworthy as it is approximately 20 times faster than the current 5G maximum data rate of 4.9Gb/s.
(Image credit: Fujitsu)
Setting the 6G standard
Each of the four companies brings a particular expertise to the project: DOCOMO developed the wireless equipment capable of handling these enormous data rates, NTT developed a device capable of transmitting 100Gb/s per channel, NEC contributed a multi-element active phased array antenna, and Fujitsu showcased world-leading efficiency in a high-output power amplifier.
Despite the hurdles associated with the higher frequencies of the sub-terahertz band, the companies believe high-capacity wireless communication is obtainable. Leveraging each company’s strengths, they pledge to continue their collaborative R&D efforts to set the standard for 6G telecommunications.
When 6G eventually becomes mainstream, it is predicted to support diverse applications such as ultra-HD video streaming and real-time control in autonomous vehicles. 6G technology like this could see 100Gb/s transmission speeds potentially becoming the new norm.
The key assumption for these findings is uncontested achievement in 100Gbps transmission over a distance of 100 meters in the 100GHz and 300GHz bands, and the attainment of an equivalent isotropic radiation power of 50 dBm. It’s important to note that the actual data rates may vary based on the communication environment and network congestion.
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New research has found that almost half (49%) of IT teams are suffering from burnout as a result of war rooms made necessary by the rampant ‘blame game’ being played between IT teams and third-party service providers.
A significant majority (91%) of organizations are still embroiled in hosting war-room-style meetings to get to the bottom of problems, increasing tensions, duration of incidents, and the risk of losing talent due to burnout.
As a result of such meetings, 46% of IT personnel have lost out on personal time during weekends and evenings, with one in five (21%) considering a change in job due to excessive stress.
Jumping ship to avoid the war room
The research, conducted by Dynatrace, found that less than a third (29%) of organizations use a single unified platform, along with the same data for both monitoring and managing digital services, which results in IT teams and third-parties working from their own version of events when things go wrong.
This lack of observability results in a blame game between IT teams and service providers, as neither are operating from the same data, in turn leading to the war-room-style meetings in order to piece together what went wrong, who was at fault, and what can be done to remediate the issue.
While the data is based on a small survey conducted at a cloud innovation event in Europe, the data points to a significantly larger problem within the IT industry. Rob Van Lubek, Vice President, EMEA at Dynatrace, said, “War rooms are an extremely negative approach to resolving problems, and against the backdrop of continued skills shortages, can significantly deepen resourcing challenges for many organisations.”
“What looked like ‘business as usual’ five years ago is no longer acceptable for many IT professionals, who reassessed their work-life balance during the shift to hybrid working. The high-stress environment of war rooms and the looming threat of emergency conference calls at any hour of the day can lead to a disenfranchised and disengaged workforce that is constantly on the lookout for their next employer.”
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Keeping your phone till it dies has got a whole lot more difficult lately, right? Hardware has reached a point in recent years where for once, it’s more likely that you’ll get bored of your phone long before you kill it and phone companies are starting to steer into this, admittedly positive, skid.
That is, unless you are OnePlus. The relatively recent phone launches from Samsung and Google have introduced seven years of Android updates to the flagship norm. But OnePlus isn’t joining the party quite yet. The OnePlus 12 launched with support for only four years of major Android updates but, contrary to belief, this might actually be a good thing.
Sticking to its roots
(Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)
Since its inception, OnePlus has consistently towed the line of high performance without a high price. While its prices have creeped up over the years, it still produces phones that can nip at the best Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra all without a bank-breaking price. The OnePlus 12 continues this trend, and from what I can tell, it makes it all the more enticing.
OnePlus loyalists will often boast of their phone’s capability to match, or even surpass, the quality of its rivals from Samsung and Google, not to mention iPhone. It’s this near cult-like drive for superiority that arguably makes OnePlus’ call to have a reduced lifespan on the OnePlus 12 one of its best decisions yet.
See, with great lifespans, come great boredoms, to badly rephrase an iconic quote. Although this isn’t something that’s necessarily true for all phone users, it’s definitely true for phone lovers, which OnePlus users usually are. The data also supports this: in a UK survey by YouGov, 62% of people said they only expect to use a phone for up to four years. In the US, data from Statista suggests people are changing their phone on average every two to three years, and these aren’t just the OnePlus lovers, this is everyone.
So why would people need seven years of Android updates? Sure, it will serve those who simply choose not to change their phone until it is broken in a way the OnePlus 12 won’t, but, is that the majority right now? I think not.
Finding opportunities
(Image credit: OnePlus)
As ever, there is a small but malleable gap in the smartphone market that OnePlus has cleverly woven its way into. The OnePlus 12 takes the best bits of some of its key rivals such as the Galaxy S24 Ultra and Xiaomi 14 and reworks them to their own model in a way which, arguably, could make you want to spend four years with it, rather than needing to to ensure you get your money’s worth.
The OnePlus 12 features the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 as standard, something which isn’t the case globally for the Samsung Galaxy S24, it has a camera system made in collaboration with Hasselblad to create an improved, yet recognisably OnePlus snapper suite, much like Xiaomi have done with Leica, and it surpasses the both of them in both battery size and charging speeds. That’s before you even consider the advanced cooling tech and battery maintenance engine featured in the OnePlus 12 to help keep it at top performance for longer.
Of course, as you’d expect, the OnePlus 12 does all of this, and still comes in at arguably great value. The basic 12GB RAM 256GB storage model of the OnePlus 12 is £849/$799.99, while the Samsung Galaxy S24 with only 8GB RAM and 128GB storage comes in at £799/$799. So for only £50 more – or absolutely no difference if you’re in the US – you can get more RAM, more storage, and specs that either match or beat the phone which is supposedly the best phone right now. So fundamentally, why wouldn’t you go OnePlus?
Looking forward
(Image credit: Peter Hoffmann)
Don’t get me wrong, seven years of updates is huge. If you can’t afford a new phone, that amount of Android updates will mean there’s all the more reason to look towards the refurbished phone market. It will add resale value to old devices, which will not only improve your bank balance but it will also give people fewer reasons to simply throw out their old phone, reducing electronic waste.
Okay now the environmental bit is mentioned, from a phones point-of-view there is one clear other side for diehard phone lovers, as fundamentally, seven years is a very long time in the tech world right now.
Right now phone advancements have picked up pace again, partly thanks to advancements in AI, yes, but also simply down to the sheer number of improvements we’re seeing in both the hardware and software devices are using. Seven years will simply leave you a long way behind everyone else, with a phone that could well be on its last legs, and a phone bill that will have seen one – or maybe six – too many yearly price increases. And nobody wants that, especially not true phone-lovers; four years however, might just be the sweet spot.
