There 6G and its “sensory” promises, virtual Sim cards, or even the project to install a mobile antenna on the Moon… At the Mobile World Fair (MWC) in Barcelona, telecommunications companies are already looking towards the networks of the future.
While 5G is still slow to see new uses since its launch in 2020, telecommunications equipment makers like Nokia are already preparing the next generation of mobile networks for 2030.
In Barcelona, the Finnish rival of Ericsson and Huawei demonstrated the “detection” of the human body by the 6Gone of six use cases identified by their research teams.
Like a radar, the sixth-generation mobile antenna will be specifically capable of detecting, thanks to its radio waves, people, objects or animals that are in its emission fields, without the need to have Sim cards integrated into any body or object. .
“We believe that by the end of this decade it will be very important that the physical world, the digital world and the human world can somehow merge into a new reality,” Rudi Broos, head of Marketing, Strategy and Technology at Technology, told AFP. in nokia
Luna target for Nokia and NASA: Announced in 2020, this $14.1 million contract signed with the US Space Agency should enable the first operational mobile phone network to be installed on the Moon, where the last step of the man dates back to 1972.
Initially announced for the end of 2022, this “ultra-compact, energy-efficient and space-resistant” 4G network should be deployed on the surface of the Moon by the end of 2023, the company said this week.
Specifically, Nokia will install a kind of mini-tower on a device from its partner Intuitive Machines, which will communicate with an antenna located on a four-wheeled “rover” equipped with solar panels.
“Once we can implement a network on the Moon, we will be able to use this same technology on Earth”, in technically demanding places, “like [l’installation d’]a network inside a mine, on an oil platform or near wind farms”, emphasizes Rudi Broos.
From Embedded Sims (eSim) to Virtual Sims (iSim): Since its 2019 acquisition of global smart card giant Gemalto, Thales has further driven innovation around its electronics that enable terminals to be connect to the mobile network.
If the Sim card has undergone increasing miniaturization over time (mini, micro, nano), it is its integrated version (eSim), that is, an electronic device implanted directly in the devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.), which now it is taking off.
According to Juniper Research, the eSim market is expected to reach $16 billion by 2027.
In Barcelona, the French group announced on Tuesday the launch of the “first” secure and certified iSim in collaboration with Qualcomm, the American manufacturer of electronic components for mobile terminals.
“This is the next step,” Guillaume Lafaix, Thales’ vice president of embedded, mobile and connectivity solutions, told AFP. In fact, “we removed the components (from the Sim) and went on to install the software feature of [celle-ci] in the Qualcomm component that is used to connect the object to the mobile network”.
Pending the complete dematerialization of the Sims, Thales has also launched a prototype (already tested during the World Cup in Qatar 2022) of a new type of vending machine to obtain a Sim card, physical or digital (eSim), as can be done to get tickets.
To do this, simply scan your identity document. This information, verified by Thales servers, is automatically sent to the telecommunications operator’s customer database.
A facial recognition system through integrated cameras finishes verifying the identity. Once the choice of the offer and the payment by credit card have been made, instead of the usual bills, a physical Sim card is printed and ready to use.
Source: BFM TV
