Though the Fifth-Generation (5G) network is still in its early days and the full potential of the technology is far from being realized, the mobile industry is already preparing for what comes next given the typical 10-year technology cycle.

While 5G promises download speeds many times faster than current speeds offered by 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks and significantly lower latency times, 6G is set to raise the bar even higher, with much faster speeds and increased bandwidth to keep consumers more connected than ever before.

According to the Global System for Mobile telecommunications Association (GSMA), there has been a flurry of announcements related to 6G in recent months, with governments and industry players outlining plans to move the concept beyond just a vision to identify use cases and roadmaps.

GSMA disclosed that the ITU-R 6G Vision Group had been tasked with defining the technology and its capabilities as the industry moves towards 6G standardization.

It added that Orange has laid out its view of future 6G use cases, including holoportation and large-scale digital twin technology.

In the Mobile Economy Report 2022 authored by GSMA, released to newsmen over the weekend, the body informed that the government in China plans to prioritize development of 6G to 2025 in a bid to make 6G part of its wider digital strategy.

According to it, in North America, the Next G Alliance has started working groups on the 6G roadmap and ‘Green G’, which is reportedly focused on achieving energy efficiency.

GSMA said the University of Texas had already launched a 6G-research centre (6G@UT) with the support of AT&T, Samsung, Qualcomm, Nvidia and InterDigital. It added that Oppo has established a research team to conduct preliminary research on 6G technology.

The report claimed that MIT and Ericsson had entered into a research collaboration to design new hardware for 5G and 6G networks.

“It is worth mentioning that the mobile industry is currently focused on 5G deployments and use cases, despite the growing enthusiasm and commitment to 6G.

“Since it takes nearly a decade to move from research to commercialization, today’s 6G discussions are timely and necessary to ensure equal opportunities and a global approach to 6G standardization and development.” GSMA noted.

GSMA, which represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting over 750 operators with nearly 400 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, disclosed that 5G had become mainstream in many pioneer markets, notably China, South Korea and the US, and was making considerable progress elsewhere.

According to it, at the end of 2021, 176 mobile operators in 70 markets around the world had launched commercial 5G services. This includes 68 operators that offer 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) services. The body noted that 5G adoption is also rising and would reach double-digit figures this year, on average.

“Momentum has been boosted by a number of factors, including the economic recovery from the pandemic, rising 5G handset sales, network coverage expansions and overall marketing efforts.

“For example, Samsung has revealed that it expects 5G smartphones to account for more than half of all smartphone sales in its portfolio in 2022.” it further stated.

GSMA stated that a new wave of 5G rollouts in large markets with modest income levels, such as Brazil, Indonesia and India, could further incentivise the mass production of more affordable 5G devices to cater for consumers in lower-income brackets. It noted that this could also drive the development of new 5G applications for consumers and enterprises in emerging markets.

The telecoms association said this was significant, given that the majority of 5G applications and use cases to date had been focused on more advanced markets.

Meanwhile, GSMA further hinted that the average retail price for a 5G phone had now fallen below $500, with devices under $150 available from some vendors, such as Realme.

“This bodes well for 5G adoption in less wealthy markets and opens the door to innovative services built around the technology,” it stressed.

As other countries are already thinking towards the fate of the nearest future, the relevant authorities in Nigeria are equally enjoined to key into the practice of being concerned about what tomorrow holds for the country’s telecom space.

It’s pathetic that the country’s teeming telecom subscribers are yet to fully key into the Fourth Generation (4G) network, let alone the 5G that’s already in vogue across the global community. Now, the topic of discourse has transcended to the anticipated 6G.

Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition bid has suffered a setback after the entrepreneur questioned the actual number of users on the platform. The Tesla CEO said on Tuesday that his $44-billion offer would not move forward until Twitter shows proof that spam bots account for less than 5% of its total users.

“My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate. Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5% (spam accounts). This deal cannot move forward until he does,” Musk said in a tweet.

20% fake/spam accounts, while 4 times what Twitter claims, could be *much* higher.

My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate.

Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%.

This deal cannot move forward until he does.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 17, 2022

The latest turn of events has sent the shares of Twitter crashing and has also ignited a sort of revolt from the company’s employees. Some executives said in leaked videos shared on Twitter that the platform was never about free speech and that has hindered its growth.

Musk’s aim in pushing for audit to determine the actual number of Twitter users will likely change the $54.20 per share acquisition cost. Musk said he suspected that spam bots account for at least 20% of users compared with Twitter’s official estimate of 5%.

“You can’t pay the same price for something that is much worse than they claimed,” he said on Monday at the All-In Summit 2022 conference in Miami.

Asked if the deal is viable at a different price, Musk said, “I mean, it is not out of the question. The more questions I ask, the more my concerns grow.”

“They claim that they have got this complex methodology that only they can understand… It cannot be some deep mystery that is, like, more complex than the human soul or something like that.”

Musk made a bid for Twitter acquisition on the pledge that he will promote free speech and turn the company’s fortune around. The pledge is now facing its most challenging hurdle so far.

Twitter Chief Executive Parag Agrawal made some tweets in response to Musk’s criticisms on Monday, explaining that internal estimates of spam accounts on the social media platform for the last four quarters were “well under 5%.”

“Twitter’s estimate, which has stayed the same since 2013, could not be reproduced externally given the need to use both public and private information to determine if an account is spam,” Agrawal said.

Musk was not satisfied with the response and tweeted a poop emoji. “So how do advertisers know what they’re getting for their money? This is fundamental to the financial health of Twitter,” he wrote.

Musk’s growth plan is expected to more than double Twitter users and revenue. He expects total number of Twitter users to grow to nearly 600 million in 2025 and to 931 million in six years from now.

However, there is growing belief that Musk has paused the deal to get a lower price that will commiserate with the current volume of Twitter users or the social media company’s current value. Twitter traded at around $35, lower than the $54.20 Musk offered.

Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Bernstein, told CNBC that Musk putting the deal on hold was “probably a negotiation tactic” amid a broad sell-off in tech stocks, an assessment several other analysts have come to agree with. Some said that Musk could be trying to push for a lower price while others suggest his claim about spam bot could be a pretext to abandoning the deal altogether.

“Unless Twitter grossly misreported data which would be a serious security fraud this might be a way to either negotiate a lower price or walk away,” Stefano Bonini, corporate governance expert at Stevens Institute of Technology, told the Financial Times. Two analysts also told the FT they believed Musk was trying to leverage a better price.

Two research groups, SparkToro and Followerwonk, said a joint audit they conducted shows that Elon Musk’s Twitter followers are likely 23% fake or spam accounts. Apart from Musk, other Twitter users with big followership are also said to be affected. Nearly half of US President Joe Biden’s followers is said by the audit to be fake.

If the audit is anything to go by, Musk may likely pull out of the Twitter deal or ask for a lower price. He is funding part of the deal with a $12.5 billion loan he used his Tesla stock to secure. But Tesla’s stock price has dived more than 20% since he announced his bid and Twitter said on Friday that it’s committed to completing the deal only at the agreed price and terms. In addition, a clause in the deal allows Musk to walk away only if he pays a $1 billion exit fee.