Late Start and Low Investment... South Korea Falls to 4th Place in 6G Competitiveness Worldwide [Tech War, Birth of Advanced Nations]

38,000 6G Communication Technology Patent Applications
China Leads with 35%, Followed by US, Japan, and Korea

Korea Established 6G R&D Implementation Plan Last Year
Samsung Released '6G White Paper' in 2020
Leading Technology Development to Secure Commercialization

Uncertainty Remains in 6G Standard Technology
Government and Academia Need to Lead Over Private Sector

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] # Drone taxis carrying people flying through the sky, non-face-to-face meetings utilizing holograms, and immersive content based on the five senses will unfold around 2030 in the ‘hyper-connected’ era. This is the future created by new wireless communication standards based on 6G mobile communication, which boasts speeds “50 times faster than 5G.” With high expected added value, it is predicted that the urban air mobility (UAM) service market, a representative 6G technology, will reach $1.474 trillion (about 1,900 trillion KRW) by 2040. It is the birth of a new world.

The competition for preemption centered on the U.S. and China surrounding 6G mobile communication technology, the foundation of future ICT, is already intense. The competition between the U.S. and China, which has continued since 5G mobile communication, is fiercely underway behind the scenes even though the 6G technology standards have not yet been established. The U.S. and China have been setting 6G promotion plans and increasing research and development (R&D) investments since 2017 and 2018, respectively. This was even earlier than South Korea’s announcement of the world’s first 5G commercialization in 2019.

South Korea’s 6G Competitiveness Ranks 4th

Efforts by countries to preempt 6G technology are also confirmed by statistics. According to the “6G Communication Technology Patent Development Status Report” by China’s National Intellectual Property Administration, among a total of 38,000 cases, China’s patent applications account for 35%, ranking first. The second is the U.S. (18%), followed by Japan (13%) and South Korea (10%). This aligns with the global 6G patent application holdings analyzed by Japan’s Nihon Keizai Shimbun and the Japanese intellectual property (IP) specialized company CyberSoken. China ranks first with 40.3%, the U.S. 35.2%, Japan third with 9.9%, European companies 8.9%, and South Korea 4.2%. Currently, South Korea’s performance is at a level of chasing other countries. Since the international mobile communication standardization organization 3GPP has not finalized the 6G standard, not all currently filed patents can be considered valuable, but the gap cannot be ignored.

6G is on the continuum of the U.S.-China hegemony war centered on IT. The Chinese government has strategically expanded investments in next-generation IT such as artificial intelligence (AI), semiconductors, and data in recent years. The IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group under the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) published a white paper last June outlining the R&D plan for 6G commercialization around 2030. The U.S., which lost the world’s first 5G commercialization title to South Korea, has also sharpened its efforts to prepare for 6G. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened high-frequency bands including the ㎔ band for experimental and unlicensed use in March 2019. Following the formation of the ‘Next G Alliance’ centered on allied companies in 2020, the U.S. signed a ‘6G alliance’ with Japan in April last year and South Korea in May. They agreed to jointly invest $4.5 billion (about 5 trillion KRW) and $3.5 billion (about 4 trillion KRW), respectively, fueling competition.

Late Start and Low Investment

Compared to the U.S. and China, South Korea is far behind at the starting line in terms of both starting time and investment amount. The Ministry of Science and ICT, the competent authority, established a 6G R&D execution plan last year to support a total of 214.7 billion KRW over five years until 2025. In June last year, the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) was selected as the lead organization for 6G R&D and began preparing the technology. The 6G core technology development project consists of nine strategic tasks in five focus areas (ultra-performance, ultra-broadband, ultra-precision, ultra-intelligence, ultra-spatial).

The private sector is relatively more optimistic. Samsung Electronics is undoubtedly leading 6G technology development in South Korea. Samsung Electronics released a ‘6G White Paper’ in July 2020 and jumped into technology development. The white paper predicted that 5 trillion devices would be connected to communication networks in the 6G era, meaning 59 Internet of Things (IoT) devices per person. Vehicles, robots, drones, and smart sensors embedded in social infrastructure are also expected to generate massive data. The white paper explained that research is needed on △ utilization of the ㎔ frequency band △ new antennas to improve high-frequency band coverage △ network technology innovations such as satellite utilization as conditions to preempt 6G commercialization. It is known that Samsung hurried to release the white paper as a secret to maintaining its ‘super-gap strategy’ in line with Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong’s usual belief that ‘there must be interest in a concrete blueprint for future technology.’ Since then, Samsung has also published 6G frequency white papers proposing research on securing frequencies for 6G services. Kim Myung-joon, president of ETRI, pointed out, “The case of a Samsung Electronics standard technology researcher being elected chairman of the 3GPP RAN1 standardization group is a good example showing South Korea’s international standardization capabilities.”

LG Electronics also succeeded in demonstrating the use of the ㎔ frequency band for 6G. In June last year, LG Electronics was selected as one of the six chair companies in the global 6G organization ‘Next G Alliance,’ which includes Qualcomm, Facebook, and Microsoft (MS). The three mobile carriers SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus are also conducting R&D in preparation for the 6G era in collaboration with companies, institutions, and academia.

Government and Academia Must Demonstrate Technological Leadership

Since 6G standards remain uncertain in the market, there are calls for the South Korean government and academia to take a more proactive role in demonstrating technological leadership. At this point, where the definition and scope of 6G standard technology have not yet been specified, it is difficult for the private sector to actively invest and develop while bearing risks. Because communication infrastructure technology requires long-term investment until global standardization, it is recommended that the government lead early 6G R&D and that private investment be linked from the mid-term onward.