I remember sending my first email in theearly1990s, a clunky experiencethat meant logging on to two different computer systems. I thought it would never replace the much swifter fax.The internet was alreadyrevolutionizingthe flow of information, and as editor ofthe Guardian’sgargantuan media sectionin the U.K.(printed every week with50pages of job ads), I wastheproud owner of one of the first“WAP-enabled”mobiletelephones. I mused in the front-cover headline whether this was “The End of Newspapers?”
Newspapers fight on, and today I am at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona,contemplating the next technological revolution.It turns outit’sa bit more consequential than the arrival of email.
Thousands ofdigitalleaders from around the world are here, displaying the latest in robotics, quantumcomputing,andIQ AI,which is grappling with the relationship between us—humans—andthemultitudeofAI agents that proffer helpand arouse suspicion.
One of the largest pavilions in the sevenexhibitionhalls of installations and exhibits (robots making sushi; virtual reality table football; cars that are phones; medical devices that might save the world) is the homeofQualcomm.No. 117 on the Fortune 500 list, the telecommunications giant was founded in San Diegointhe 1980sand isnow at the heart ofa debate about a tech-enabled world.
Mobile 6G sounds prosaic—just anotherdevelopment phaseforcell phones, which started with phone calls(2G), brought us texts(3G), data (4G),andsmartphones(5G).
Itisn’t. 6G will be the telecommunication system for the AI age—for all the datapassingbetween us, AI agents,andthe real world,where phones will bejust onepart ofthe digitalecology. Theinternet of everythingis finally arriving.
117
Qualcomm’s ranking on the Fortune 500
“AI will fundamentally change our mobile experiences,” Qualcomm chief executive, Cristiano Amonsays.“It’sgoing to change how we think about our smartphones. Think about our personal computing. Think about and interact with a car. The car is now a computing surface.
“Ifyouactually believein the AI revolution, 6Gwill berequired. Resistance is futile.”
AkashPalkhiwalais Qualcomm’s chief financial officer and chief operating officer.I spentsome time with himatthe company’s stand,ashis leading engineerstookme througha 6G futurewhere individuals will have real-time information delivered to them via their glasses.Palkhiwalacompliments me on my watch, which only does one thing.It tellsmethe time.
“6G is going to be the first time that connectivity and AI come together in the network. What we’re building is the first AI-native wireless network that’s ever been built,” he explains.
“If you actually believe in the AI revolution, 6G will be required. Resistance is futile.”
Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm’s chief executive
“The traffic that we expect on 6G isway differentthan what we had before,” says Palkhiwala. “Before,it was all about consumer traffic. We expect 6G to be driven by [AI] agent traffic.Think about all these use cases where there are AI agents sitting on various devices—your glasses, your watch, your phone, your PC. Theseagents are going to be talking back and forth across the network to other agents and services.
“Thetrafficcompletely changes. 6G is being built with this idea that the traffic that goes on the network is not just going to be consumer voice calls or downloading videos,we’regoing to have agents talking to each other,sothe reliability of the network becomesvery important.”
“6G is going to be the first time that connectivity and AI come together in the network. What we’re building is the first AI-native wireless network that’s ever been built.”
AkashPalkhiwala, Qualcomm’s chief financial officer & chief operating officer
On-device capabilities (the ability of your phone to process far more data); edge computing (locally sourced IT technologyrather than distantdata centers);more efficient use of available bandwidth (AI-enabled load control);andgreatercloudaccesswill all come togetherto produce a new wireless network.
I askPalkhiwalawhat this all might mean for a mother from Arkansas?
“That’s a great question,” he answers(itisn’t, but itis an attempt to bring the issue homefornon–technology experts).
“Today we are in the application economy,” he notes. “On the phone, youwant to make a travel reservation, you go to one application. You want to orderanUber,you go to a second application.You want to order food, you go toathird application, movie tickets,etc.The userhas togo through that effort.
“In the future, you think of the app economy moving over to an agent economy, where there’s one agent I’m interacting with, and I can ask that agent to book me a movie ticketora plane ticket, to order food for me, get an Uber for me. It knows everything about me.”
On the standthere is an interactive tabletop display that used tolook impossiblymodern in movies 20 years ago. With the swipe of a finger,a videoplays. It isof a driver arriving at a supermarketwherethere is a waiting robot with bags of groceries it already knew you wanted.
Qualcomm says the first 6G applications will be in consumer testing by the time of the Los Angeles Olympics in2028. By 2029, rollouts will begin.Many are still getting their heads aroundappliedAI, andin the U.K., where I live, 5G is still spotty and drops out whenever on the train. Mobile World Congress is a gatheringof thousands of people allfocused on the possibilities of an AI-enabled future. How it works outwill take the brainpower of many millions more.
English (United States) 
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