6G news and analysis for the week ending Friday, 2nd October, 2026.
Hello and welcome to this week’s 6G Futures newsletter. My special reports on the September 3GPP plenaries are now available for RAN #113 and SA #113. The CT #113 report will follow once the chair’s report is made available.
This week, we report that e& UAE has switched on commercial service in the upper 6 GHz band, with 350 MHz of contiguous spectrum for a single operator. That is a real milestone for the band, although it is 5G-Advanced and not 6G, whatever the press release says. In the same week, the GSMA’s regional head told Gulf Business that deployment alone does not create a business case. Both things are true and the gap between them is the real problem that 6G faces.
In Seoul, a NATO project is meeting to agree how 5G and 6G standards are applied in defence, and includes KT amongst the delegates. In Taipei, Chunghwa Telecom and Far EasTone have reportedly used Taiwan’s first 6G summit to present multi-orbit satellite as a starting assumption for 6G. Also this week, Ericsson signed exploratory agreements with two Japanese component makers; and Professor Merouane Debbah of Khalifa University told Kazakhstan’s state news agency that 6G will connect intelligence, not only devices. It is a familiar vision with no national 6G programme attached. We also have our regular selection of four research papers. Happy reading.
e& UAE puts upper 6 GHz into commercial service
e& UAE says it has launched commercial service in the upper 6 GHz band, using 6425 to 6775 MHz and radios with 256 transceivers. The 350 MHz layer sits on top of its existing 5G-Advanced network. The operator calls it a world first and ties it to the TDRA’s national 6G roadmap. The network is engineered for single-user peaks of 10 Gbps down and 1 Gbps up. Marwan Bin Shakar, Chief Technology Officer at e& UAE, described the launch as “operationalising the native architecture needed for 6G”.
What’s new: The UAE launched its upper 6 GHz ecosystem in April, and e& awarded the build to an unnamed partner in June. A white paper last week from TDRA, e&, Khalifa University and NYU Abu Dhabi puts its reach within 2 to 5 per cent of 3.5 GHz, which of course is modelling, not measurement.
Why this matters: One operator now has 350 MHz of contiguous mid-band in service. That is near the 400 MHz Verizon calls a floor for 6G. In the UK, Ofcom has prioritised 540 MHz for all UK mobile operators. But this is 5G-Advanced in band n104; nothing here is 6G radio and the architecture claim is marketing. Also, e& gives no vendor, site count or device numbers, so the scale is unknown.
What this means for operators: The practical claim is that upper 6 GHz works as a capacity overlay on the existing C-band grid, without densification. If e& publishes live traffic data, then it becomes a compelling case that operators can take to regulators. Until then the evidence is trials and modelling.
View source material to read more - Gulf Today
View source material to read more - Khaleej Times
View source material to read more - NYU Abu Dhabi
NATO’s 5G and 6G defence standards project convenes in Seoul
Korea’s Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) and Ministry of National Defense are hosting the ninth meeting of the NATO Wireless Communications Standards Project (NWCSP) in Seoul this week. NWCSP is a three-year project running from February 2024 to February 2027 and develops standards for applying 3GPP-based 5G and 6G in defence. Around 100 officials and standards experts are attending. KT has provided the venue for the meeting and says it is the first Korean operator to take part. TTA Chairman Son Seung-hyun called defence use of commercial mobile technology “a challenge that the private and defense sectors must address together”.
What’s new: NWCSP is new to most of us in the telecoms industry. The plenary is reviewing standard documents on satellite communication and wireless backhaul. TTA expects agreement between nations to be largely settled (note that the meeting only ends today).
Why this matters: Defence is moving from funding 6G research to shaping how the standards are applied. We have tracked the research side in Finland and through the VTT and TNO defence agreement. Last week the Pentagon’s Tom Rondeau argued that militaries gain from operating in commercial bands. NWCSP is the mechanism for this, creating common documents so allied forces can interoperate on commercial technology.
What this means for 6G standards: 3GPP does not write defence specifications, obviously, but a NATO project built on 3GPP releases gives defence ministries a reason to care about 6G and Rel-21, particularly non-terrestrial access and security. The project’s mandate ends in February 2027, which is long before the 6G specification becomes finalised.
View source material to read more - TTA
View source material to read more - KT
View source material to read more - ChosunBiz
Taiwan’s operators present multi-orbit satellite as a 6G baseline
Taiwan held its first 6G Summit Taipei on 23 and 24 September, organised by the 6G Industry Forum and TAICS with MediaTek, Chunghwa Telecom and Far EasTone. Its 200-plus delegates included the US NTIA, Europe’s SNS JU, Japan’s XGMF and Korea’s 6G Forum, reports Tech Times, drawing on Taiwan’s iThome. Chunghwa exhibited a service combining GEO, MEO and LEO satellites with its terrestrial network as a layered backup. Far EasTone argued that a single orbit cannot meet 6G requirements. Chunghwa general manager Lin Rong-Si described 6G as “a next-generation digital ecosystem for cross-industry collaboration”.
What’s new: It is relatively new to hear operators treating satellite as part of the network design, though the article’s claim that they have locked this in overstates it somewhat. These were demonstrations and speeches, not procurement or standards commitments. Today, Chunghwa is licensed across all three orbits, and Far EasTone has an Amazon Leo distribution deal targeting launch in early 2027.
Why this matters: For Taiwan, multi-orbit is a resilience policy first, after subsea cable breaks exposed the island’s fragile international links. The summit also has a diplomatic purpose. Taiwan is not an ITU member state and cannot vote at WRC-27, so it builds influence through industry channels. That is the pattern behind the 6G-IA agreement in June, the NT$27 billion programme and last month’s spectrum symposium.
What this means for policymakers: Hosting NTIA and SNS JU puts Taiwan near the unobtainable top table. The harder test is 3GPP, where integration is not going entirely the satellite industry’s way. At RAN #113 the satellite operators’ migration option survived only in a reduced form. A national design built on multi-orbit still depends on what Release 21 specifies.
View source material to read more
GSMA’s MENA head puts value before speed, then asks for more spectrum
Jawad Abbassi, head of MENA at the GSMA, has told Gulf Business that regional operators should not treat 5G and 6G as separate journeys. The priority, he says, is getting more value from 5G Standalone and 5G-Advanced while building capabilities that 6G will later use. The interview previews MWC26 Doha, co-located this year with the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference. Abbassi said that “network deployment on its own does not create a business case”. On spectrum, he repeated GSMA analysis that 6G could need up to three times today’s mid-band holdings.
What’s new: There is little that is strictly news but the value is in hearing the GSMA’s regional head concede that the 5G business case is unfinished while his organisation campaigns for 6G spectrum. He also says the 6G conversation should begin with the problems it solves and the business models that sustain it.
Why this matters: Operators have not finished monetising 5G-Advanced, yet the industry wants up to three times its mid-band spectrum for 6G. The first case rathers weakens the second: the spectrum figure is advocacy and the recent Plum Consulting study questioned the demand assumptions behind it. BT made a similar point from the operator side when it said no application yet requires 6G. The Gulf is also where spectrum is least scarce, as e& UAE’s 350 MHz shows.
What this means for investors: The GSMA is telling Gulf operators that returns will come from enterprise services, private networks, edge computing and network APIs, not faster consumer broadband. The global network API market he cites, $7.6 billion by 2030, is modest against the capital 6G will absorb. Remember that this is a pre-event interview with an advocacy body.
View source material to read more
Ericsson signs exploratory MoUs with Murata and Sumitomo Electric
Ericsson has signed separate Memoranda of Understanding with Murata Manufacturing and Sumitomo Electric Industries to explore technologies for next-generation mobile infrastructure. The stated aims are better network performance and lower product energy consumption for 6G and AI. Activities may include joint technology evaluations, knowledge exchange and proofs of concept. The work will draw on Ericsson’s R&D centre in Yokohama, which began operations in April. Chafic Nassif, President of Ericsson Northeast Asia, said that “Japan is home to many of the world’s most advanced component technologies”.
What’s new: These are agreements to explore, with no named technology, funding, deliverable or timeline. The two companies are component makers, a different kind of partner from the operators and research institutes behind most of Ericsson’s recent agreements.
Why this matters: Radio performance and energy use are increasingly decided at component level. The release does not say which components are in scope. The executives quoted come from Murata’s communication and sensor unit and Sumitomo Electric’s transmission devices division, which points to parts for radio units. The timing is notable, as Nokia is closing its Hangzhou radio R&D site, and this release stresses resilient and trusted systems. Supply chain geography is most definitely part of the story. Last week’s programmable GaN chip paper showed how much 6G radio research now sits in materials and devices.
What this means for the vendor race: Ericsson is tying its Yokohama centre into Japan’s component industry while it deepens operator ties there, including an AI-RAN trial with SoftBank. Early sight of component roadmaps could matter as larger antenna arrays push up power budgets. What we want to see next is a named joint development.
View source material to read more
Selected research papers published this week
Digital twin update rate can be tuned to save energy, hardware tests show
João Borges, Aldebaro Klautau and colleagues study how twinning rate and fidelity affect a network digital twin for mmWave beam management. The physical twin is real hardware: customised 60 GHz Wi-Fi radios with 32 antenna elements. The virtual twin uses the Sionna ray tracer. The fidelity needed varies during operation, and Bayesian optimisation can set the twinning rate efficiently.
Why this matters: Digital twins appear in most AI-native 6G architectures, usually with running costs ignored. A twin refreshed too often burns energy for no gain. Hardware measurement carries more weight than the simulation-based work in the survey we covered in August. It is one indoor Wi-Fi setup, so read it for method, not numbers.
View source material to read more
Slot pattern coordination shields massive MIMO from a D-MIMO neighbour
Maria Clara Lobão, Behrooz Makki and colleagues analyse a massive MIMO primary network coexisting with a distributed MIMO (D-MIMO) secondary network. Both use time division duplex, but their uplink and downlink phases are not synchronised. Different 3GPP slot patterns significantly affect spectral efficiency. Coordinating the secondary network’s pattern avoids performance loss at the primary.
Why this matters: D-MIMO is a 6G candidate for dense areas, but it will be deployed beside existing massive MIMO grids, not instead of them. The result suggests it can be a tolerable neighbour if it adapts its frame structure. That is relevant to the coexistence arguments at RAN #113. The abstract gives no figures, so the size of the benefit is unclear.
View source material to read more
Agents build ISAC training data from a plain-language request
Yijie Bian, Khaled Letaief and colleagues propose AIMS, a two-agent framework for multi-modal integrated sensing and communication (ISAC). Given a natural-language request, one agent builds a geographically grounded simulated scene with synchronised sensing and wireless records. A second configures the learning model. On the real-world DeepSense 6G dataset, they report better vehicle detection and beam prediction than the baselines considered.
Why this matters: Sensing models need labelled real-world data that operators cannot cheaply collect at every site. Synthetic data is the obvious answer, if models trained on it survive real conditions. The railway ISAC study we covered in August reported accuracy on synthetic data only. Testing against real measurements is the right bar.
View source material to read more
Switchable surface elements sharpen ISAC positioning in simulation
Ahmad Reza Hassanshahi, Rouhollah Amiri and Fereidoon Behnia study a Reconfigurable Distributed Antenna and Reflecting Surface (RDARS). Each element can either reflect passively, like a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), or connect to the base station as a distributed antenna. The authors jointly optimise beamforming and each element’s mode to minimise the Cramér-Rao Bound on target position, while guaranteeing signal quality for communication users. Simulations show a better trade-off than passive RIS or distributed antennas alone.
Why this matters: Letting some elements act as connected antennas is a pragmatic hybrid. The evidence is simulation only. The connected mode also needs a link back to the base station, which erodes the low-cost appeal of a passive surface. Treat it as research for later releases.