Chinese researchers reportedly have developed a means for networks to simultaneously support different cellular standards ranging from 2G to 6G.

According to state media outlet Xinhua, a group of researchers from Peking University's School of Electronics created a "unified hardware platform" that uses light to modulate wireless signals and, in turn, generate wireless channels.

Test results of their efforts reportedly allowed the researchers to achieve parallel support for all generations of wireless communications up to 6G on a single integrated device. The researchers also claimed the technology can reduce power consumption more than tenfold while also encouraging base station miniaturization.

According to Xinhua, experiments of the unified hardware platform saw it achieve total transmission speeds some 30-times faster than conventional systems found in 6G network communications.

It’s hard to verify the technology, especially claims around 6G network performance. But China has sought to push aggressively into efforts around the next-generation standard.

China state media reported in January that the country’s 6G development efforts have resulted in the development of more than “300 key 6G technologies,” per the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

No set 6G specifications currently exist, with standards not anticipated to be finalized at some time in late 2028. But that hasn’t stopped researchers from China racing to secure some 40% of the world’s 6G patent applications – though filing a vast array of patents doesn’t necessarily mean dominance in a particular market or field of technology.

Despite the clamor for 6G, Huawei downplayed the rush at the recent Mobile World Congress (MWC) event, with the CEO of its ICT Business Group instead urging operators and regulators to focus on 5G-Advanced and 6 GHz spectrum to handle exploding AI traffic.