New York Post, Sunday, November 15, 2020nypost.comchina’s ‘6g’ LEap
By MELANIE GRAYChina is barreling ahead on ultra-
fast wireless technology, quietly
hurtling the world’s first 6G test
satellite into space while the US is
still rolling out 5G at a snail’s pace.
The satellite, called Star Era-12,
has frequency bands so high that
they have to be tested in space so
the signals won’t be lost as easily as
in air, the National Science Founda-
tion’s Thyagarajan Nandagopal ex-
plained to The Post.
Exactly how fast the bands are
isn’t known, but Nandagopal esti-
mates a range of 100 to 500 giga-
hertz, or Ghz — 100 times faster
than 5G. To understand that speed,
compare 5G and 4G cellphones: A
5G model is 100 times faster than a
4G, depending on the carrier.
What 6G will touch covers every-
thing from communications to tele-
medicine to national security, ac-cording to Professor Tommaso Me-
lodia, who heads Northeastern Uni-
versity’s Institute for the Wireless
Internet of Things. And along with
the technology will come a slew of
new products and services that will
pour billions of dollars into the
global economy, just like 5G
brought Uber, Instacart and Netflix.
For example, a 6G iPhone will
download a high-def movie in eight
seconds and 1,500 high-res photos
in less than a minute. A surgeon in
New York can use robotic technol-
ogy to operate on a patient in Cali-fornia. And a robot will search for a
dirty bomb inside the subway or
stashed in Penn Station.
Nandagopal brushed off China’s
push, saying the NSF “is enabling
technologies that will end up defin-
ing” 6G in a few years. Melodia, too,
doesn’t think the US is late to the
tech race, but he does think Ameri-
cans need to remember how impor-
tant communications research is.
“My honest impression is that we
got excited with other things like
artificial intelligence and software
advances like the cloud,” Melodiatold The Post. “We took wireless as
a given and now realize because of
the pandemic that our entire econ-
omy depends on communications
research. We can’t take it for
granted — China hasn’t.”
For NYU global-affairs expert
Pano Yannakogeorgos, China may
not be the winner yet of the 6G
game, but it clearly is in the p.r. war.
And the launch makes clear the
communist titan wants to be the 6G
standard bearer — just like it was
for 5G.
The Chinese government laid out
a five-year timeline of 5G strategic
objectives — and researchers made
their deadlines. Today, Yannakoge-
orgos said, China is 5G king, much
like the UK was the world’s first
commercial telegraph powerhouse
in the 19th century.
“He or she who controls the net-
work controls the world,” he told
The Post.It was a sweetheart deal
that has baffled the world —
how, in 2008, Jeffrey Ep-
stein was allowed to plead
guilty to a lesser felony
prostitution charge, register
as a sex offender and serve
just 13 months in a county
jail where he could come
and go during the day, de-
spite several victims testify-
ing he raped them.
It’s now been revealed
that one of Epstein’s attor-
neys previously dated one
of the prosecutors.
Lilly Ann Sanchez “was a
member of Epstein’s de-
fense team in 2008 when he
was facing a potential fed-
eral indictment and life im-
prisonment,” according to
the Daily Mail.
Sanchez had dated Matt-
hew Menchel, who worked
on the plea deal.
Paula Froelich
Epstein
atty. twist
Ultra-fast wireless
satellite launched
Robert Miller (2)Midtown is all spruced up
and ready for the holidays.
The unofficial start of the
festive season came Saturday
with the arrival of the Rocke-
feller Center Christmas tree.
The majestic 75-foot-tall,
45-foot-wide, 11-ton Norway
spruce was trucked into
Manhattan around 7:40 a.m.
Less than three hours
later, workers had pruned
and uprighted the tree in
preparation for next
month’s close-up.
The tree, donated by Al
Dick, the owner of Daddy
Al’s General Store in One-
onta, will be lit Dec. 2.
“I’m still in awe that this
was in my back yard a little
while ago,” Dick family
member Paula White, 45,
told The Post.
The decorated tree will
feature more than 50,
multicolored LED lights
strung on approximately
five miles of wire and a 900-
pound Swarovski star de-
signed by architect Daniel
Libeskind in 2018.
Chris Ortiz, 26, who
moved to Gotham from
Southern California weeks
ago, stumbled upon the an-
nual Christmas miracle.
“When you see it put up in
previous years, you’re just
like, ‘How did it get there?’
and to see it lying on the
flatbed is really cool to see. I
was at the right place at the
right time.” Sam Raskin
and Dean Balsamini