Biden official: 'Jury is still out on how 6G will look'

Even as 5G still has years to go before it's fully implemented, the White House is already game-planning how to get ahead with 6G.

Top Biden officials began government planning for the coming sixth generation of mobile wireless communication in an event Friday hosted by the National Science Foundation.

The goal of the workshop "was to talk about how we get the technology and policy right to ensure that we can lead in this space," Anne Neuberger, Biden's Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber & Emerging Technology and one of the attendees, told Yahoo Finance Live on Monday.

She added that, for now at least, "the jury is still out on how 6G will look."

The full-day meeting entitled “6G: Open and Resilient by Design” comes as experts predict that changes from the emerging technology could be felt as early as this decade amid a host of national security concerns, including China's aggressive moves to put its stamp on the still-developing standards.

Friday's gathering featured lawmakers, business leaders, academics, and other stakeholders with a plan to continue the conversations in the months ahead and to also fold in European allies in an effort to make a united stand against China.

Assistant Secretary of Commerce Alan Davidson noted in his remarks to kick off the event that the technology has huge potential, but also “raises questions about how authoritarian governments could deploy this technology for further surveillance — and control — of their citizens.”

As for the technology itself, experts are already making grandiose predictions about a coming era of ubiquitous connectivity, which could spur new technologies that can constantly monitor users and their surroundings.

Nokia has described 6G as nothing less than a technology that will allow a world where “the digital, physical, and human world will seamlessly fuse." The company's goal is to have it commercially available by 2030.

“6G is not just 5G-plus,” former Federal Communication Commission (FCC) chairman Tom Wheeler told Yahoo Finance. “6G will facilitate much more than just better use of your smartphone, and we need to consider it in that kind of a context.”

Chinese efforts ‘that we ought to be resisting’

One question is who will set the technical standards for how the network is built: U.S. companies or Chinese ones like Huawei.

China has been aggressive in the area, even reportedly testing its own 6G standards. There are also concerns that the way China is building the technology could create privacy issues by making it easier to individually identify users.

"We certainly see much tighter linkage now between the Chinese government, not only state-owned firms, but their private sector telecom firms like Huawei and ZTE," said Neuberger, adding that the administration believes that over 90% of private-sector Chinese firms now have communist party members inside the companies working to influence decision-making.

"If you can't trust your supplier, you can't have confidence that data won't be spied on, that communications won't be disrupted or degraded in a time of crisis," she said.

The private sector's efforts to develop the standards in the US are being coordinated by a group called the Next-G alliance, which was formed to research 6G technology and includes major telecoms like Verizon (VZ), AT&T (T), T-Mobile (TMUS), and others.

Qualcomm (QCOM) CFO Akash Palkhiwala — a member of the alliance — appeared on Yahoo Finance Live last year and predicted 6G could be deployed in the second half of this decade.

The National Science Foundation also recently announced a call for partnerships between the government and leading companies to advance next-generation computing systems, including 6G.

Getting ahead in what will be an ‘essential technology’

The issue has also gotten attention on Capitol Hill with a recent hearing on wireless leadership. Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) noted that “simply because our nation led the world in providing consumers with access to 4G wireless technology and Wi-Fi does not mean we will achieve the same result in 5G, 6G, or Wi-Fi 7.”

The possibilities of 6G have other far-reaching possibilities, including allowing the ubiquitous use of artificial intelligence in people's daily lives to using less power and helping the fight against climate change. It could also increase internet access to underserved areas by transmitting data faster and across greater distances.

In attendance Friday were Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) and Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA), among others. Luján tweeted out that his focus was on "ensuring that new essential technology is available in every zip code.”

Wheeler, who was chairman of the FCC during the Obama administration and is now a visiting fellow at The Brookings Institution, criticized the Trump administration’s approach to 5G, saying it ceded too much to China.

The earlier the Biden administration can show concrete action in this area, the better, he said, adding “hooray for the Biden administration for getting out in front of this”

This post has been updated.

Ben Werschkul is Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.

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