The reality is that 5G is still in diapers

Qualcomm celebrates its annual Snapdragon Summit event these days, where they have announced their new processors: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 For smartphones and Snapdragon X2 Elite For laptops. In addition to the launches, the company has spoken a lot about the future of technology in the AI ​​era and, more specifically, of connectivity. The company’s CEO, Cristiano Amon, confirmed that they are already working on the 6g And moreover: they already have a date for the first devices.

2028. It is when Qualcomm will have ready the first devices with 6g. Of course, they will be precomercial equipment, no 6G mobiles that we can buy. With 5g, Qualcomm did his first tests in 2018, but It was not until 2019 that we had it in Spain by the hand of Vodafone (although it was limited to a few cities). The 6G is already in the conversation and Qualcomm is not the only company that is being anticipated. Samsung also foresees that the standard is defined by 2028 and South Korea has planned a pilot program which will begin next year, but the estimate is that there will not be a commercial 6G at least until 2030.

The excuse of AI. With the 5G the promise was more speed and less latency, with the 6G the promise of Qualcomm is a network focused on artificial intelligence. For amon, the key to this new generation of networks will be the connectivity between the cloud and the Edge. “The difference between 5G and 6G, in addition to expanding the speed, is that it will be an intelligent network capable of perceiving and identifying the data (…) we have been very busy creating the next generation of connectivity that this can endure,” he said during his conference.

The Edge matters. It is the central pillar of Qualcomm’s speech and the reason is evident: the Edge It is your business. The difference between Cloud and Edge is Where the data are processed. In the context of AI, the cloud is where the great models and the Edge They are the teams that run local models such as computers, smartphones or smart glasses, for which Qualcomm manufactures its chips. During his speech, the CEO of Qualcomm insisted a lot on the importance that the data we generate will have when using the IA locally on these devices: “It complements it, it is immediate, personal, adds context … is where Ia becomes yours.”

The 5G state. We carry years talking about 6g And now Qualcomm has put a date, but the reality is that in Europe the entire potential of 5G has not yet been unleashed. The reason is that the millimeter band (MMWave, 24 GHz – 100 GHz) has not been promoted, as other countries such as South Korea, Japan or the United States have done. The European approach has been to bet on medium and low bands (3.5GHz and 700 MHz), which allow greater coverage with less antennas, so the investment is lower. The problem is that without the millimeter band you can not reach the ultrabaja latency that promises 5G.

Too fast. That AI is assuming a revolution at many levels No one doubts it, but as every great novelty, it is accompanied by excessively enthusiastic speeches by interested companies. We are seeing it with the agents AI: Gurús like Altman They promised that 2025 was going to be the year of the agentsthe reality is that Technology is in a very premature phase And even It fails a lot. Qualcomm’s speech in this Snapdragon Summit peca of the same thing: they draw us a world in which an AI agent organizes our lives, We will all wear glasses with AI6G will be necessary to be able to manage everything and of course Qualcomm will be a key actor in all this.

Image | Qualcomm, Pexels (Edited with Gemini)

In Xataka | The AI ​​is escaping our hands. 200 experts have a very simple solution: establish “red lines”