As remote working becomes commonplace, internet reliability becomes more vital than ever. The internet of things (IoT) makes the internet a more integral part of our lives, and developments at all network levels will continue to drive research and push the internet economy forward.
According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index forecast update for 2018, there will be 1.4 billion more people using the internet by 2022, compared with 3.4 billion users in 2017. This equates to almost 60 percent of the global population, assuming a population of eight billion by 2022. By then, internet users are expected to consume 4.8 zettabytes of data per year, 11 times the amount of IP traffic generated in 2012, with 437 exabytes.
While 5G may be in its infancy, we’ll see an increased focus on 6G in 2022. China started research into 6G in 2018. By late 2020, the country had launched a satellite to test terahertz signal transmission. Huawei and ZTE were involved. The U.S. also started 6G research in 2018 with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opening higher frequency spectrum for experimental use. A Next G Alliance was started in 2020, with companies on board including Apple, AT&T, and Google. Korea, Japan, and some European countries have started looking into 6G seriously, and we expect to see more announcements in 2022.
