Japanese telecom operator Nippon Telegraph & Telephone (NTT) plans to build a pilot 6G network to serve the venues of Expo 2025 Osaka, as reported by Nikkei Asia, and plans to commercialize the technology by the end of the century.
In a recent interview, NTT West President Mitsuyoshi Kobayashi said the group has begun designing the basic infrastructure for the network. Details will be finalized from the fiscal year beginning in April.
6G services will be delivered by NTT's innovative optics and wireless networks. The infrastructure, known as IOWN, will serve Yumeshima, an artificial island in Osaka, which will be home to the Expo.
Image from Nikkei
The Japan Association, the organizer of Expo 2025, plans to launch next-generation mobile services, as well as virtual expos in a metaverse where people can participate through avatars. The sixth-generation network is expected to support these services. Telecommunications networks currently use data centers and buildings to convert optical signals into electrical signals. But this process creates delays and consumes a lot of electricity.
Image from NTT
IOWN processes the data without the need to convert the optical signal, which reduces the loss. This opens the door to data transmission capacity 125 times larger than traditional technologies, while reducing power consumption to a scale of 1%. "The reduction in communication latency can lead to the realization of fully autonomous vehicles," Kobayashi said.
Since the technical standard for 6G has not yet been established, NTT is promoting IOWN as the core technology for wireless communication. The group is developing next-generation technologies for IOWN, such as operating systems and semiconductors that process optical signals.