White Paper explains why 7GHz spectrum range is favorable for 6G in the U.S.

It feels that we have gone from 3G connectivity to 5G very fast. Back in 2008, T-Mobile was the last of the four major carriers to press the button launching its 3G service in Las Vegas. That was the year that Apple released the iPhone 3G replacing support for AT&T's slow-as-molasses EDGE network with 3G connectivity. In 2010, Sprint was the first carrier to offer 4G speeds using WiMAX technology. The first phone to connect to the service was the HTC Evo 4G.

In December 2010, Verizon became the first U.S. wireless provider to offer 4G LTE service to customers. Tests showed that Verizon's 4G LTE was faster than Sprint's WiMAX 4G and you might recall that the first 4G LTE-enabled smartphone was the HTC ThunderBolt. As for 5G, AT&T was the first U.S. carrier to offer the service in December 2018 although the signal was received via a mobile hotspot.

The first U.S. wireless provider offering 5G service to smartphones was T-Mobile. The carrier launched its nationwide 5G service using its low-band 600MHz spectrum in December, 2019. The first handsets capable of working with T-Mobile's nationwide 5G were the OnePlus 7T Pro 5G McLaren and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G.

As the years have gone on, 5G speeds have become faster in the U.S. thanks to T-Mobile's decision to focus on the 2.5GHz mid-band spectrum that it acquired from Sprint precisely for this purpose. Not as fast as short-distance mmWave signals, but much faster than slow low-band signals, mid-band airwaves travel far enough and are fast enough to make mid-band the Goldilocks of wireless. The other day, my carrier's 5G mid-band service allowed my iPhone 15 Pro Max to experience a download data speed of 1.3Gbps.

And that takes us to 6G which is expected to debut in 2030. A group called 5G Americas delivered a White Paper that included insights on what we might expect from 6G service in the U.S. based on the use of spectrum in the 7GHz band. Networking firms like Nokia and Ericsson as well as the Biden Administration have called 7GHz the possible "home" for 6G service in the states. The report says that using spectrum in the 7.125 – 8.400 GHz range will provide 10 to 20 times the capacity, deliver faster data rates, and allow for existing base stations to be reused.

The White Paper also expects speedier average cell site connection speeds hitting 16Gbps with 6G compared to .8Gbps for 5G. This measures how fast data can be transferred between a mobile device and a cell tower. However, there is an issue with 6G coverage in the 7GHz band where it falls short of 5G and 4G. Of course, when 6G finally does arrive, it will be used on more bands than just 7GHz.

We are quite a few years away from having 6G service offered by carriers. But a test run earlier this year in Japan generated a download data speed of 100Gbps which is 120 times faster than peak 5G and 76 times faster than the 1.3Gbps I experienced on my phone.