For IEEE Spectrum readers following telecommunications news in 2024, signals expanding their reach and range animated readers to read more: Including stories on early-stage cellphone “towers” now in low-earth orbit, low-power Wi-Fi implementations reaching out for kilometers, China expanding its satellite broadband constellations into regions of the globe dominated by SpaceX Starlink, and 6G signals curving around obstacles to expand bandwidth and coverage.
To be fair, “signals expanding reach and range” is a fair description of telecommunications more generally. What ultimately is electromagnetic spectrum, after all, but signals propagating? Yet, compared to telecom news of a decade or two ago—when wireless remained in its wireless silo, while broadband remained squarely in the domain of broadband, and satellite communications remained something else entirely—the encroaching of each previously fixed category into one another’s turf seems to be increasingly commonplace in today’s hybridizing field.
So while 6G still currently remains just a glimmer in the eye of big telecom’s R&D departments, while emerging Internet megaconstellations are still launching, and while phone calls remain mostly all still routed through ground-based cellphone towers, here are the stories that drew Spectrum telecom readers’ eyes most reliably over last year.
1. China’s Challenge to SpaceX’s Starlink
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China has their own Starlink competitor, a megaconstellation called Qianfan (“thousand sails”) that’s now on track to deploy 14,000 low-earth orbiting satellites by the end of the decade. Which is very ambitious, especially when measured against the 54 (18 at the time of Spectrum‘s article on the topic) now in orbit. In tech startup circles, this kind of hopeful wishcasting could generate some scoffs among the investor class. On the other hand, China is anything but a scrappy and unproven startup. Some early indicators that Spectrum readers will want to watch as a thousand sails begin to unfurl through 2025: the nation’s satellite manufacturing and launch rates, how China’s National Space Agency handles emerging space debris questions worldwide, and the tension between international cooperation and competition that Qianfan will surely continue to stoke.
2. 6G Terahertz Signals Curve Around Obstacles
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Between the microwave and infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum are waves that oscillate between 0.1 and 10 trillion cycles per second. These terahertz (THz) waves behave somewhat differently than the giga- and megahertz spectrum most wireless and Wi-Fi users are accustomed to. Case in point: some regions of the THz spectrum can collectively follow curved trajectories, enabling signals to follow the contours of physical barriers and extend the reach of THz networks beyond straight lines-of-sight.
3. Qualcomm Brings AI to Wi-Fi
Andriy Onufriyenko/Getty Images
The San Diego-based telecom chip giant in 2024 released a chip called FastConnect 7900 that represented something a step-change in the field: As artificial intelligence encroaches into every field in tech—and plenty others too—FastConnect will extend Wi-Fi signals using AI-enhanced spectrum that enable the chip to suit the needs of each application. So a Wi-Fi connection streaming video draws a different power profile than one that’s carrying a voice or video call.
4. European Telecos Wave a Slow Goodbye to Huawei and ZTE
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Telecom providers in the EU have been increasingly alert in recent years to security concerns raised by analysts and other analysts around 5G equipment manufactured by China-based teleco giants Huawei and ZTE. So while an EU directive speaks with a singular voice about phasing out Huawei and ZTE equipment in regional 5G networks, real-world implementation remains scattershot and patchy.
5. Low-Power Wi-Fi Extends Signals Up to 3 Kilometers
Morse Micro
A new standard for low-power Wi-Fi has been setting long-distance records. Specifically, the Australian startup Morse Micro is extending the reach and range of what are called Wi-Fi HaLow networks out beyond the 3 kilometer mark. Due to its comparatively low bandwidth (1 megabit per second top speeds), the system appears best poised for the Internet of Things (IoT) marketplace, though Spectrum‘s story also notes that other competitors in the space beyond the Wi-Fi brand are offering fierce competition.
6. Quantum Cryptography Has Everyone Scrambling
Harald Ritsch/Science Source
Meanwhile, securing signals with quantum keys (a decades-long race in the field called quantum key distribution) has inspired a range of approaches that finds China, India, the E.U., and the U.S. each pursuing their own approach to a virtually unhackable communications network. Even as finalists this year emerged for the entirely different cryptographic standard called post-quantum cryptography, QKD has analysts guessing who will emerge victorious as this new field of purely quantum communications comes of age.
7. FCC Denies a Starlink Bid for Lower Orbit
IEEE Spectrum
In March, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission denied a SpaceX request to orbit some of its Starlink satellites in very-low earth orbit (VLEO) in a bid to decrease Starlink’s latency. The problem, the agency noted, is the satellites would have orbited below even the International Space Station. As a result, spacecraft launching to the ISS might have to dodge stray Starlink traffic along the way. How the FCC responds to future SpaceX requests like this will be a topic to watch in 2025, to be sure.
8. Glass Antenna Turns Windows Into 5G Basestations
JTower
The Japanese company JTower grabbed headlines with an innovative deployment of 5G antennas that’d been integrated into some otherwise conventional office building windows in Tokyo. A company spokesperson noted that as 5G signals proliferate and the need for coverage expands, ways to shrink 5G infrastructure into a cityscape background could be an unobtrusive way to extend network reach and range without expanding eyesore of another conspicuous cellphone tower antenna.
9. Wi-Fi Goes Long-Range on WiLo Approach
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Like item 5 above, a Chinese team of researchers have expanded Wi-Fi’s footprint toward greater long-distance wireless networks. Again like item 5, IoT appears to be the best application for a relatively low-power and lower-bandwidth implementation.
10. Satellites Are Becoming the New Cellphone Towers
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From nearly a year ago, Spectrum chronicled the changing currents of wireless infrastructure—including larger antennas and new beamforming tech enabling satellite-based phone towers in low-earth orbit. In an urban or suburban and even in many rural locations, nothing can match the range and low cost of the old-fashioned metal tower on a hilltop. However, remote and underserved regions that might not otherwise have any cell service to speak of could ultimately benefit from a new orbiting approach to routing calls and data through the skies above.
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