China is leading the global race to develop usable 6G network technology.

 According to the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), China is leading the global race to develop usable 6G network technology, having patented 35% of the nearly 38,000 patents related to the technology.

A significant portion of China’s technology has already been patented in artificial intelligence, although the use it makes for networks with terahertz waves is not clear – a frequency 1,000 times higher than that used currently in gigahertz technology.

The Asian country hopes to begin deploying finished 6G technology in 2030, with speeds of up to 50 gigabits per second (which is 10 times faster data transfer speed than the best M.2 SSD drives can currently handle).

China has successfully launched what has been described as "the world's first 6G satellite" into space to test the technology.

It went into orbit along with 12 other satellites from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in the Shanxi Province.

The telecoms industry is still several years away from agreeing on 6G's specifications, so it is not yet certain the tech being trialled will make it into the final standard.

It involves use of high-frequency terahertz waves to achieve data-transmission speeds many times faster than 5G is likely to be capable of.

The satellite also carries technology which will be used for crop disaster monitoring and forest fire prevention.