Oh great, here comes 6G
TL;DR
6G is emerging as the next major mobile standard, set to be a key topic at MWC 2026. Despite 5G's incremental progress since 2019, it hasn't fully delivered on its hype, and 6G faces similar expectations.
It brings me no pleasure to say this, but friends: The next G cometh.
The standard formally known as 6G is still being established, but it's going to be a major topic of discussion at Mobile World Congress 2026, which gets started today in Barcelona.
5G arrived back in 2019, but also, did it, entirely? You may have noticed a distinct lack of the robot surgeons and streets dominated by autonomous vehicles that standard was supposed to enable in your daily life. Like the Gs that arrived before, 5G continues to evolve through new "releases" every few years - a case of incremental progress that couldn't possibly live up to all that hype. Tha …