MWC 2025

Qualcomm shifts focus to 6G and predicts AI-enhanced future

In preparation for MWC 2025, Qualcomm discussed its vision for the future of wireless networks this week, making it clear that the focus for the coming years will be on the standardization of 6G. In addition to detailing some of the innovations that should be developed for sixth-generation networks, the company also reinforced how Artificial Intelligence should be a determining factor in ensuring better adaptability and stability of connections.

According to Qualcomm, the journey to the networks of the future begins with the adoption of technologies that increase signal efficiency and coverage, mentioning then how non-terrestrial networks (NTN), based on satellite communication, will play a fundamental role in this. With widespread adoption of these networks, even remote areas will still have high-speed internet, making it possible, for example, to maintain the signal continuously when entering rural and more remote regions.

The method is still linked to 5G, which will continue to be important in the future, and aims to act in areas where low-frequency networks, in the range between 1 GHz and 2 GHz, cannot serve the user. Speaking of frequencies, another advancement that the giant is targeting is the so-called Giga-MIMO. In short, MIMO is the technology that uses multiple antennas to send and receive data. The proposal of the new version is to extend operation to the intermediate frequency range of the radio frequency spectrum, between 7 GHz and 15 GHz, thus adopting communication bands of 400 MHz each, identified by the brand as "FR3". 

The novelty, which would be one of the pillars of 6G, would guarantee greater bandwidth, less delay and, consequently, higher internet speed. Still on this path, another area of ​​attention for Qualcomm is the growing need for increasingly faster means of communication that data centers and servers are presenting. For this sector, the company proposes the implementation of wireless networks operating with mmWave (frequencies above 24 GHz) and Sub-THz (100 GHz and above). Both would work together with fiber optic connections to allow computers to communicate more quickly.

Finally, one aspect present in all of these efforts is the implementation of Artificial Intelligence, which is already used on a certain scale with 5G. Qualcomm's idea for 6G is to employ it end-to-end, going from user devices to the communication infrastructure, so that the network can adapt in real time to needs. Tests of this concept are already being carried out with 5G-Advanced, in partnership with giants such as Nokia Bell Labs and Rohde & Schwarz.

The company released some demonstrations of the technologies it intends to develop for the next generation of wireless networks, and confirmed that it will detail its plans for 6G, 5G Advanced and other connections in greater detail during MWC 2025, which begins this Monday (3). 6G networks are already under development and will have their first complete package of specifications published later this year. The global debut is scheduled for 2030, with Release 22 from 3GPP, the consortium responsible for regulating wireless communication technologies globally.

mundophone