China already testing ultrafast 6G internet in space – and it could be 100 TIMES faster than 5G

WE’RE still in the early stages of the rollout of 5G, but China has already fired what it claims is the world’s first 6G satellite into orbit.

The tech lifted off from a spaceport in the Shanxi province last week and will be used to test the next generation of mobile network technology, according to Chinese state media.

Once fully developed, it’s thought that 6G tech will be 100 times faster than 5G, which is still only available in select cities across the globe.

That means your mobile will be able to download an HD movie in eight seconds, or 1,500 high-quality photos in under a minute.

The innovative satellite was hurled into space with 12 other satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the Shanxi Province on Friday.

It’s named after the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UEST) and will serve to test the new 6G spectrum bands.

It's hoped that a commercially viable version of 6G could launch as early as 2030 — It’s hoped that a commercially viable version of 6G could launch as early as 2030Credit: Alamy

The Star Era-12 satellite will also be used for crop monitoring and forest fire prevention.

As well as UEST, the Chengdu Guoxing Aerospace Technology and Beijing MinoSpace Technology worked on the project.

The development of 6G is still in its very early stages, and it’s unlikely the satellite contains all that much 6G technology.

It’s hoped that a commercially viable version of 6G could launch as early as 2030.

What is 5G?

Here’s what you need to know…

The term 5G stands for 5th-generation, and is simply the next “version” of mobile phone networks.
The world’s network operators have settled on a new method of delivering mobile internet to your phone, making it possible to offer far higher download speeds.
Early figures suggest you’ll be able to download 4K movies in a matter of seconds, and buffering video will be a thing of the past.
But 5G also promises low “latency” – the physical delay in transmitting data – which is a major boon for gamers, who desperately need their online actions to be sent and received as quickly as possible.
EE is first across the line in the UK, with 5G live in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham or Manchester.
The good news is that EE plans to roll out 5G in a further 10 cities by the end of 2019: Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Bristol.
Vodafone has also switched on 5G in seven cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, and London.

It’s one of many recent innovations in data technology.

In August, Brit engineers smashed the world record for the fastest internet speed, clocking a monster 178 terabytes (178,000 gigabytes) per second.

That’s quick enough to download 22million HD photos in less than a second, or the entire Netflix library in under half a minute.

Experts at University College London achieved the feat by transmitting data through a much wider range of colours of light than is typically used in optical fibre broadband.

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