Samsung is planning a major phone upgrade that will give users faster data than the iPhone

SAMSUNG has announced a new partnership to help build a 6G wireless network that will allow devices to handle data faster than iPhones.

The Korean tech giant today announced that it is partnering with Princeton University in the US to bring the next-generation network to life.

After joining Princeton's partner program, Samsung will work with the university's School of Engineering and Applied Science to find out what 6G will look like for smartphone users.

Several commercial partners are also part of the program, including Vodafone, Ericsson, Qualcomm, Nokia Bell Labs and MediaTek, which are also working on the development of 6G.

The shared ownership of the technology means it will be available on all phones.

However, some countries or phone companies may roll it out to users sooner than others.

South Korea was the first country to offer 5G in March 2019, following the introduction of 4G in Norway in 2009.

But smartphone companies started offering 5G more widely to consumers in 2020.

Once 5G was implemented, Samsung dove into the development of 6G and published a white paper on the future network in 2020.

Yet many people still use 4G every day, and are satisfied with it, because 5G is only compatible with newer smartphones.

But the effort will nonetheless boost 6G commercialization.

The next-generation network could be rolled out by the end of this decade – if we look at the ten-year gap between 4G and 5G.

“The wireless industry has benefited significantly from fundamental research over the past decades,” said Dr. Charlie Zhang, Senior Vice President at Samsung Research America.

“We encourage Princeton researchers to continue to innovate and develop disruptive technologies that could deliver major breakthroughs in 6G.”

What could 6G look like?

Analysis by Millie Turner, Technology & Science Reporter for The Sun.

It's not yet clear what 6G will look like in practice – it will look a lot like 5G, only better.

Some scientists believe that 6G networks will offer maximum speeds of 1Tbps (terabit per second) – that's 100 times faster than 5G's hypothetical top speed of 10Gbps.

According to experts at DigitalTrends, that's enough to download 142 hours of Netflix in one second.

The final standards that will define what a 6G connection is will likely rest with the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

But if mobile data generation has brought something new in addition to faster speeds, what is 6G's unique selling point?

Experts from Surrey University in Britain think 6G could act as 'teleportation for the senses' when smartphones are connected to smart wearable devices.

“With 2G we could send ringtones, with 3G we had photos, with 4G we had video, and in 5G we have virtual reality and augmented reality, which is 3D video,” said Professor Rahim Tafazolli, director of the 6G Innovation Center. the University of Surrey. told The times.

“6G must be four-dimensional, with sensors that transmit people's touch, sense of smell and taste, and all environmental information surrounding a person.”