Global Race to 6G: Domestic and international experts gather in Beijing to discuss the future of communication technology

China News Service, Beijing, March 28 (Reporter Chen Hang) Currently, countries around the world are accelerating the development of the 6G industry. At the 2026 Zhongguancun Forum being held in Beijing, experts from both home and abroad discussed the new future picture of communications.

6G refers to the sixth-generation mobile communications technology. Huang Yuhong, President of the Zhongguancun Pan-Union Institute and President of the China Mobile Research Institute, said in an interview that global 6G is in a critical stage of technology standardization and industrial buildout. Among them, China, which is in the first-tier group, has played an active role in the standards-making system. It has completed the drafting of the first 6G requirements research report under the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) for which it took the lead, and is also actively advancing the formulation of wireless technology and network technology standards.

Huang Yuhong said that, in addition to high reliability, low latency, and fast rates, 6G also has characteristics such as integrated sensing and communication, integrated space and terrestrial systems, and integrated connectivity and intelligence. 6G is not only an important component of the future industry, but also a key information infrastructure supporting intelligent applications.

For consumers, 6G will bring systemic change. Xu Xiaodong, Vice President of the Zhongguancun Pan-Union Institute and a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said that 6G will continue to build on the improvements in bandwidth and throughput of 5G while expanding the boundaries of user experience. This includes establishing a three-dimensional communications network covering land, sea, air, and space, providing reliable connectivity in scenarios such as remote areas and high-altitude environments; and deeply integrating AI to help users use intelligent services more conveniently.

2026 is a crucial year for 6G development. Jin YiDun, a full-time Vice President of the Zhongguancun Pan-Union Institute, said in an interview that, from the perspective of R&D progress, before 2026, 6G will mainly focus on technical exploration, and then will gradually shift toward technology convergence and system development. In terms of standards, targeting the commercial goal for 2030, the next few years will be a key window period for standards formulation and substantive advancement.

Satellite internet is an important part of 6G communications. This year’s government work report clearly calls for “accelerating the development of satellite internet.” Chen ShanZhi, Vice President and Chief Engineer of China Information and Communications Technology Group Co., Ltd., said that for users such as forest rangers, border defense personnel, fishermen, and outdoor travelers, as well as scenarios such as civil aviation and unmanned aerial vehicles for low-altitude flight, and wide-area operations in oceans and lakes, and when ground communications facilities are damaged by natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, it is necessary to rely on satellite communications to provide a communications experience of “being able to get online anytime and anywhere.” These real needs also offer guidance for large-scale application and industrial development of satellite internet.

As 6G moves from technology R&D to industrial cultivation, terminal form factors will show trends toward diversification, intelligence, and immersion. Huang Yuhong said that in the 6G era, smart glasses will transmit what the wearer sees to the cloud in real time, and display the information needed, achieving “seeing is knowing.” Wearable devices will continuously monitor body data to enable health-status prediction, transforming into a “health guardian.” Service robots will enter thousands of households in the role of “human partners,” taking on tasks such as cooking and companionship.

AI also brings new momentum to the development of the 6G industry. Li Ming, a member of the Royal Society of Canada and an academician, said that one of the major challenges facing 6G is a spectrum bottleneck. To solve the problem of bandwidth limitations, it is necessary to introduce AI large models to achieve efficient data compression—meaning that when transmitting the same amount of information, the smaller the data volume, the shorter the transmission time, which indirectly improves throughput.

Guo Guisheng (Tony Quek), Vice President of Nanyang Technological University of Design and Technology in Singapore, said that countries around the world are accelerating the development of the 6G industry, and integrating rapidly evolving AI technologies into the 6G ecosystem has become a key direction. This depends on pooling the strength of universities, research institutions, and operators, and coordinating to advance both technology R&D and industrial rollout. (End)

(Editor: Wen Jing)

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