News briefing
    In mid-November, Apple joined the Next G Alliance set up by the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions and has become one of its founding members.

 

Impact analysis
 

    The Next G Alliance was established for the ATIS institute, upon 5G development.  It was established with North America’s end-goal in mind, to obtain a leading position in 6G technology in the next decade. As of November 19, a total of 27 founding members have enrolled, including Apple, AT&T, Bell, Charter, Ciena, CISCO, Ericsson, Facebook, Google, HP, Intel, LG, Microsoft, Nokia, Qualcomm, Samsung, T-Mobile, Verizon, and others. Although the strength of communication technology has always been an important indicator of the scientific and technological competence of a country, the progression between generations has developed automatically with application, supply and demand, and technological maturity with Europe and the United States — leading the way before 5G. However, when China grasped the foremost position in 5G, it changed the wireless communication industry’s value chain. As a result, it set off the US-China science and technology war and transformed the concerns among countries regarding their technological backwardness into practical action seeing they have resorted to diverse forms of deployment to cope with the situation in advance. For a relative timeline, 6G has become the next-generation communication technology that has now surfaced.

 

    The composition of the founding members indicates that the Next G Alliance 6G project’s technology is mainly derived from highly connected companies in North America. In contrast, China is also aggressively working on the research and development of 6G while 5G is being commercialized. However, even if the Next G Alliance, symbolizing North America, is matchless in terms of its economic scale and corporate influence, mainland China, which is about to become the world’s largest market, should never be underestimated when it comes to 6G development. The technological diversion of these two powers seems to be taking shape. Although Taiwan’s 5G PCB industry need not worry about the diversion of the supply chain regarding the development context at this stage. However, Taiwanese manufacturers should be prepared in advance for any possible scenarios, as viewed from these early stages of the current 6G development, because it will not be a consistent model worldwide if the future situation remains unchanged.