6G news and analysis for the week ending Friday 26th September, 2025.
This was one of the busiest weeks in 6G news for some time, dominated by Verizon’s launch of its 6G Innovation Forum, a consortium that brings together Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Qualcomm and Meta to develop 6G around real-world use cases rather than abstract specifications. The initiative includes a dedicated lab in Los Angeles and a deliberate strategy to avoid repeating what Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio candidly described as the industry’s failure to identify use cases before previous generations launched. In a revealing interview with Light Reading, Tenorio also raised serious concerns about US spectrum competitiveness, warning that China’s allocation of the entire 6 GHz band puts American operators at a disadvantage in delivering integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) capabilities.
Adding urgency to the timeline, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon declared at Snapdragon Summit that the company is ready to deliver “pre-commercial devices with 6G as early as 2028.” Given Qualcomm’s central role in both 3GPP standardisation and silicon development, this is a statement that carries real weight.
Elsewhere, Nokia Bell Labs outlined how its research pipeline feeds directly into 3GPP standards, Ericsson urged South Korea to accelerate its 5G standalone transition as a prerequisite for 6G, and Germany’s 6G NeXt research project concluded after three years under Deutsche Telekom’s leadership. We also cover a Thales opinion piece on the broader geopolitical and sustainability dimensions of 6G, plus analysis of Asia Pacific spectrum auctions and India’s 6G ambitions.
Key announcements this week
Verizon launches 6G Forum with major partners
Verizon announced the establishment of its 6G Innovation Forum, uniting Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, Qualcomm and Meta to develop foundational 6G technologies and identify use cases ahead of standardisation. The forum will establish dedicated 6G Labs, starting in Los Angeles, for collaborative research, prototyping and early field trials. In interviews with Fierce Network and Light Reading, Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio explained the rationale and outlined key technical priorities. “With previous generations we failed to identify the use cases before the technology came,” Tenorio told Fierce. “This time we will do it with a use case in mind.”
What’s new: The forum represents a significant step beyond theoretical 6G discussion. Tenorio identified uplink architecture as a critical redesign priority, arguing that current mobile networks were not designed for the data volumes that AI agents will generate. He also flagged device power consumption as a design-from-the-ground-up priority for 6G, noting that the RedCap optimisations in 5G were effectively bolt-on fixes. In his Light Reading interview, Tenorio raised concerns about a 6G device design challenge: cramming eight antennas into wearables is impractical. “Can you imagine a wearable with eight antennas? It’s difficult enough to have two.” He also noted that 6G could potentially arrive as “almost a software upgrade on anything that is 5G New Radio-compatible,” given the likely retention of OFDM as the underlying air interface. The forum is open to additional members, with Tenorio welcoming potential involvement from Nvidia.
Why this matters: Verizon has considerable influence as one of the world’s largest operators, and the combination of network vendors, a chipset maker and a device/platform company (Meta) reflects the breadth of ecosystem coordination required. Tenorio’s most striking comments concerned US spectrum competitiveness. He warned that China is allocating the entire 6 GHz band (lower and upper), enabling 400 MHz carriers per operator, while US regulators have reserved the upper 6 GHz band for unlicensed Wi-Fi. “When it comes to spectrum for 6G, I’m not sure the US is globally competitive right now,” he said. He offered warmer words about the recent One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which charges US authorities with identifying at least 600 MHz of spectrum between 1.3 GHz and 10 GHz for commercial uses.
Implications for 6G standards: The forum’s focus on testing new spectrum bands and working with 3GPP directly links its output to the standardisation process. Tenorio’s view that 6G should not require a new core network, echoing the broader industry sentiment captured in 3GPP workshop submissions, aligns with the evolutionary approach favoured by most vendors. The emphasis on massive MIMO scaling to 256TRX and full duplex as differentiating 6G technologies is consistent with what Nokia demonstrated at its Oulu R&D centre earlier this month.
View source material to read more
Also covered by: Fierce Network | Light Reading | Korea Bizwire
Qualcomm CEO targets pre-commercial 6G devices in 2028
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon used a keynote at Snapdragon Summit in Maui to declare that the company is “ready to have pre-commercial devices with 6G as early as 2028.” Amon described 6G as providing both connectivity and perception, based on highly contextual sensor data from a constellation of personal devices, within a vision of AI-imbued personal devices creating an “ecosystem of you.”
What’s new: Amon positioned 6G as “designed to be the connection between the cloud and the edge devices,” emphasising the edge-cloud continuum as fundamental to future agent-centric experiences. He tied 6G to six broader trends: AI as the new user interface, shifts in compute architecture, AI model hybridisation, increasing relevance of edge data, perceptive 6G networks, and agent-centric experiences. Smart glasses emerged as a key form factor, with Qualcomm already supporting Meta’s connected glasses development. Amon said: “For the age of AI, connectivity is evolving so it actually can deliver on this vision.”
Why this matters: Qualcomm is a pivotal player in 3GPP standardisation and the company that must translate 6G specifications into silicon. Its 2028 pre-commercial target is aggressive but not inconsistent with the broader timeline: 3GPP Release 20 (covering 5G-Advanced and 6G study items) is tracking for a functional freeze in early 2027, and Release 21 will contain the first 6G standards. The 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles is an obvious showcase target. Qualcomm’s emphasis on the uplink challenge from AI applications mirrors exactly the concerns raised by Verizon’s Tenorio this week.
Implications for 6G standards: Qualcomm’s 3GPP workshop submission advocated for “lean specifications” and “minimising number of options.” Its 2028 pre-commercial target implies confidence that sufficient 6G specification detail will exist by then to support prototype chipsets, which in turn suggests Release 21 timelines are holding. The emphasis on smart glasses and wearables as primary 6G devices reinforces the device power and antenna design challenges the industry is grappling with.
View source material to read more
Nokia Bell Labs details research-to-standards pipeline
Nokia published a detailed blog by Peter Vetter, President of Bell Labs Core Research, and Peter Merz, Head of Nokia Standards, describing how the company’s research feeds directly into 3GPP standardisation and product development. The piece positions Nokia in what it calls the “golden window” of the 6G creation cycle.
What’s new: Nokia highlighted several concrete examples of its research-to-standards approach. Trials with NTT DOCOMO and SK Telecom have demonstrated AI-native air interface capabilities, informing 3GPP 6G air interface specifications. A collaboration with Qualcomm on AI-based Channel State Feedback used AI embedded in both the base station and device to optimise beam direction. Nokia and Telia have tested upper 6 GHz spectrum capabilities in indoor and outdoor environments. The company is also working with the IETF on post-quantum cryptography standards and feeding that work into 3GPP 6G security specifications. Nokia announced it is co-organising the annual Brooklyn 6G Summit with New York University for early November.
Why this matters: This blog provides useful transparency on how vendor research translates into standards contributions. The AI-native air interface work with operators and the cross-vendor AI collaboration with Qualcomm show that interoperable, multi-vendor AI in the radio layer is progressing beyond theory. The upper 6 GHz spectrum testing with Telia directly supports the case for these bands as 6G candidates, a topic of significant policy debate given the competing claims from the Wi-Fi community.
Implications for 6G standards: Nokia’s work on AI-native air interface, ISAC channel modelling, post-quantum cryptography and energy efficiency design goals for massive MIMO are all feeding into active 3GPP study items. The emphasis on standardised data access for AI-driven network optimisation aligns with the broader push for AI-native 6G that runs through virtually all vendor submissions to the 3GPP 6G Workshop.
View source material to read more
Ericsson urges Korea to accelerate 5G Standalone for 6G
Ericsson Vice President for New Technologies Mischa Dohler used the company’s Innovation Day in Seoul to argue that South Korea must urgently transition from 5G non-standalone (NSA) to standalone (SA) networks to secure its position in the 6G race. He identified structural barriers including reduced telecom capital expenditure, stalled progress due to NSA reliance, and operators’ concentrated investment in AI.
What’s new: Dohler argued that Korea’s current 5G NSA architecture, which relies on the underlying 4G LTE network, makes a direct transition to 6G difficult. Even when moving to 6G, the path must go through 5G SA as an intermediate step, since 6G NSA will be based on a 5G SA core. He highlighted the data traffic implications of emerging technologies, noting that if just 20 per cent of the global population uses AI-based smart glasses for 10 minutes daily, global data traffic would triple. Sibel Tombaz, CEO of Ericsson Korea, positioned the company as a strategic partner focused on “AI-native 5G Advanced, autonomous networks, security, and energy efficiency.”
Why this matters: Korea’s 5G SA delay is not unique but is particularly striking for a country that prides itself on being a mobile technology leader. The message echoes a broader industry concern: operators worldwide that remain on NSA face additional complexity and cost when migrating to 6G. Ericsson’s argument that 5G SA is a prerequisite infrastructure investment, not an optional upgrade, carries weight given the company’s $5 billion annual network R&D spend.
Implications for 6G standards: The 3GPP 6G Workshop submissions showed strong consensus around standalone architecture from day one for 6G. Korea’s TTA is one of the seven 3GPP Organisational Partners, and Korean operators and vendors are active contributors to the standards process. If Korea’s domestic 5G SA transition stalls, it could affect the country’s ability to test and validate 6G technologies at scale.
View source material to read more
Germany’s 6G NeXt research project concludes
The 6G NeXt (Native Extensions for XR Technologies) project, led by Deutsche Telekom and funded by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, has concluded after three years. Launched in late 2022, the project explored next-generation architectural concepts for scalable, modular 6G infrastructure.
What’s new: Among the project’s completed feasibility studies was an anti-collision system for aviation that enables drones to operate safely in mixed airspace around airports, requiring extremely low latency, synchronised data streams and distributed computing. Other studies focused on event-driven orchestration for automated cloud and network resource provisioning across multiple providers, and real-time transmission of photorealistic, interactive 3D video. Peter Ledl, head of T-Labs at Deutsche Telekom, said: “The architecture concepts, demonstrators and scientific results of the 6G NeXt project will help inform future initiatives in Germany and contribute to the development of a 6G ecosystem.”
Why this matters: The project’s drone anti-collision work is a practical example of the ultra-reliable, low-latency applications that 6G is expected to enable. The multi-provider orchestration research is relevant to the cloud-native, disaggregated network architectures that dominate 6G architectural discussions. Consortium members included DFKI, Fraunhofer FOKUS, TU Berlin and TU Ilmenau, representing a cross-section of Germany’s telecommunications research ecosystem.
Implications for 6G standards: Deutsche Telekom’s own 3GPP 6G Workshop submission emphasised human-centric technology, sustainability and disaggregated RAN architecture with open interfaces. The 6G NeXt findings on distributed computing and low-latency orchestration are likely to feed into the company’s ongoing standards contributions, particularly around service-based architecture and edge compute integration.
View source material to read more
Thales: Geopolitics, security and ROI define 6G
Thales Group published an opinion piece arguing that 6G will be defined not just by technical advances but by geopolitical rivalry, cybersecurity challenges, sustainability demands and return on investment pressures. The piece positions these as the four factors that distinguish 6G from all previous cellular generations.
What’s new: Thales highlighted that China has secured more than 40 per cent of 6G-related patent applications, prompting unprecedented export controls and regulatory responses from Western governments. The EU’s “AI Continent” initiative, pledging €200 billion to collaborative programmes, is framed as a bid for European technological sovereignty. The piece also references the “Doughnut Economics” model as a potential framework for balancing social connectivity needs with ecological ceilings. On monetisation, Thales cited market forecasts ranging from $48 billion to $110 billion by the mid-2030s, while noting that some societal benefits of 6G may require public funding to initiate adoption.
Why this matters: The piece provides a useful synthesis of the non-technical pressures shaping 6G development. The security section is particularly relevant given Thales’ position as a major cybersecurity and defence technology provider. The observation that 6G’s AI-native, disaggregated architecture will massively expand the attack surface, combined with the proliferation of autonomous entities, reinforces the security-by-design approach that 3GPP’s SA3 working group is now pursuing.
Implications for 6G standards: Thales’ emphasis on post-quantum cryptography, zero-trust architecture and alignment with EU regulations (CRA, DSA, AI Act) maps directly onto 3GPP SA3’s recently endorsed 6G security study programme. The geopolitical dimension, while outside 3GPP’s direct remit, will inevitably influence how standards are developed and adopted regionally.
View source material to read more
Asia Pacific spectrum auctions shape 6G readiness
Telecom Review Asia published a comprehensive analysis of spectrum auction strategies across the Asia Pacific region, examining how different national approaches to spectrum allocation will influence 6G readiness. The article covers Thailand, Vietnam, India, South Korea, Japan and China.
What’s new: Thailand’s June 2025 auction raised over THB 41.3 billion ($1.3 billion) but was contested by only two operators, AIS and True Corporation, raising concerns about a regulated duopoly. Vietnam is tying spectrum access to strict rollout obligations, requiring winners to launch 5G services within 12 months. Japan is preparing to introduce spectrum auctions by early 2026, replacing its current free-allocation system. The GSMA projects that each APAC market will need around 2 GHz of mid-band spectrum between 2025 and 2030 for full 5G deployment. The article notes growing interest in spectrum sharing models, including refarming, cognitive radio and TV white-space trials.
Why this matters: Spectrum allocation decisions made now will directly determine the competitive landscape for 6G in the Asia Pacific. The contrast between China’s state-led allocation model, which has delivered 4.5 million 5G base stations, and market-based auction approaches in other countries highlights the trade-offs between speed of deployment and competitive efficiency. South Korea’s approach of capping spectrum holdings to ensure fair distribution is cited as best practice.
Implications for 6G standards: The 6 GHz band and surrounding frequencies are central to 6G spectrum planning, as Verizon’s Tenorio emphasised this week. How Asia Pacific regulators allocate these bands, particularly balancing licensed 6G use against unlicensed Wi-Fi, will shape the global spectrum landscape that 3GPP specifications must accommodate.
View source material to read more
India outlines 6G ambitions and challenges
An opinion piece in ET Edge Insights by Ajay Mathur, Senior Vice President at InfoVision, examines India’s readiness to be a 6G leader. The article references the Bharat 6G Vision Document, government-funded testbeds and India’s growing patent portfolio.
What’s new: India has funded two national testbeds for THz and advanced optical communication, approved 111 research projects with a budget of ₹300 crore, and sanctioned 100 5G labs in academic institutions. IIT Hyderabad has demonstrated 6G prototypes in the 7 GHz band, including massive MIMO antenna arrays and satellite-compliant systems. India ranks among the top six countries globally in 6G patent filings. The article estimates 6G could add more than $1 trillion to India’s economy by 2035.
Why this matters: India’s TSDSI is a 3GPP Organisational Partner with 54 member companies, giving the country a formal voice in 6G standardisation. The combination of government-funded research, growing patent filings and participation in international standards bodies positions India as an increasingly significant player. However, the article acknowledges persistent challenges including uneven 5G rollout, lower R&D expenditure than leading nations, and the need to balance 6 GHz spectrum allocation between cellular and Wi-Fi interests.
Implications for 6G standards: India’s 7 GHz band prototyping and participation in ITU’s IMT-2030 framework directly feed into the global standards process. The country’s emphasis on indigenous technology development and the Bharat 6G Alliance mirror similar national coordination efforts in the US, EU, Japan and South Korea.
View source material to read more
IIIT-Bangalore advances RIS for 5G and 6G
Researchers at IIIT-Bangalore are developing Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) panels that function as “smart walls” to optimise wireless network signals for 5G-Advanced and 6G systems.
What’s new: The RIS panels are designed as cost-effective, “plug-and-play” upgrades that can be mounted on walls or poles, eliminating the need for additional tower infrastructure. The research covers passive, active and hybrid RIS designs. To address challenges in fast-moving environments, researchers are developing AI-powered systems that predict user movement for continuous signal optimisation.
Why this matters: RIS technology is expected to be an important component of 6G radio architecture, particularly for extending coverage without deploying additional base stations. The focus on cost-effective, low-power solutions is particularly relevant for dense urban deployments and emerging markets where infrastructure investment is constrained.
Implications for 6G standards: RIS featured in multiple 3GPP 6G Workshop submissions, including from Vestel Electronics and other vendors. The technology’s potential role in 6G base station design and coverage extension is an active area of study, though standardisation of RIS interfaces and capabilities is still at an early stage.