There is no 7G after 6G.
Because something much bigger may already be starting:
Until now, telecom networks connected people and devices.
The next wave connects something else entirely:
→ AI agents
→ autonomous systems
→ satellites and robotics
→ machine-to-machine intelligence
At this scale, communication becomes just one function — not the whole point.
The network itself starts to look less like a pipe and more like a living infrastructure layer that continuously:
— senses
— predicts
— coordinates
— learns
— optimizes
…in real time, without human instruction.
That’s a different kind of transition.
Not faster data.
Not lower latency.
But networks that stop behaving like communication systems at all.
The post-6G shift may not be another “G.”
It may be the convergence of wireless + AI + sensing + compute + automation into something we don’t have a clean name for yet.
Which raises the harder question:
If the network becomes intelligent infrastructure — who governs it? Who owns it? Who is it actually for?
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Who governs it? It will likely trigger a massive geopolitical battle between the West (ITU/3GPP frameworks) and competing global blocs over AI alignment and data sovereignty.
Who is it for? Increasingly, it will be optimized for machines talking to machines, not humans browsing the web.
The GSM evolution won’t stop—it’s just that humans are about to become the minority users of the networks we built.
My Question
What part of this shift do you think will be the hardest for the current telecom giants to adapt to—the tech itself, or changing their business models away from just selling data plans to humans?
To be honest I am not sure operators will have budgets for 6G.
They are still not monetizing properly 5G.
Europe is under immense financial pressure.
Buying power has dwindled over the last few years.
ARPU is down to rock bottom.
5G is merely a small add-on.
That’s why everyone is reluctant to go full-fledged 5G SA, as it needs a lot of investment on the core side.
And in the UK, no other 5G use case has exploded other than eMBB.
Infrastructure is centuries old and not ready for 5G use cases.
Double whammy.
