It has been just over a year since the kick-off 3GPP 6G Workshop convened in South Korea, where industry experts spent two days sharing their visions and priorities for 6G and emerged with ambitious statements about its performance, applications, potential benefits, and timeline. Confident statements by standards organizations and technologists may be inspiring but count for little if the chipset vendors, device manufacturers, infrastructure suppliers and operators whose commitments will determine the roll out of the technology fail to see robust business opportunities. So, where do the visions of technologists and futurists meet the commercial realities of those whose investments will shape the realization of 6G?
Rationalising original the pillars of 6G
In the last twelve months, we have seen a shakedown in how 6G will be implemented in its initial phase and the use cases it will be able to support. If we consider the original fundamental technology pillars of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), sustainability and the use of sub-terahertz frequency bands, AI and ISAC have gained momentum but there has been a softening on sustainability, and a rationalisation of where sub-terahertz frequency bands will be used.
Emphasis on lower frequency bands
The original vision of using sub-terahertz (90 GHz –300 GHz) frequency bands to achieve huge throughput and low latency communications for data-hungry, real-time applications has been scaled back. As the carrier frequency increases, the attenuation through walls, street furniture and vegetation become limiting, and line of sight is generally required. Furthermore, as the wavelength decreases, mechanical tolerances of RF components become more demanding and developing commercial components becomes a design and manufacturing challenge, restricting availability and increasing the cost. This has led to narrowing of the applications of sub-terahertz away from outdoor cellular networks towards short-range, indoor point-to-point communications for specific scenarios where extreme data rates or low latency are required. Examples include high-resolution holographic communication in factories and hospitals, wireless connectivity of compute units in data centers and indoor immersive communication.
As chipset and infrastructure vendors start to refine their research plans, it is clear that the 6G emphasis will be on sub-6 GHz and the upper mid-band / FR3 (7-24 GHz) to enable an evolution path from 5G Advanced. The upper mid-band’s potential to deliver both wide-area coverage and high capacity, particularly when paired with next-generation technologies like Giga-MIMO.
Integrated sensing and communication (ISAC)
ISAC enables a mobile system to acquire information about characteristics such as distance, angle, velocity and the shape of an environment and objects within that environment. The support for ISAC has strengthened over the last year as operators identify potential new revenue streams, mainly with government, public safety, and defence clients. For example, tracking drones, monitoring automated vehicles, analysis of people movements, flood detection and other potentially dangerous environmental conditions. To enable operators to monetize these new uses cases, infrastructure vendor Ericsson has already developed a novel end-to-end architecture for 6G sensing that could be used to assist drones with collision avoidance.
Artificial intelligence
It has become clearer over the last year that that 6G networks need to be AI-native from day one, embedding artificial intelligence into the air interface, RAN, core and resident on devices, with data continuously training models to optimize performance. Compared with 5G where AI is an add-on, 6G will be intrinsically AI capable to increase energy efficiency, resilience through self-healing, reliability and to support for low latency, high throughput, and high precision applications. Key alliances and initiatives such as the AI-RAN Alliance, ORAN Alliance and 6ARROW are gaining momentum and providing leadership; defining a path to conduct research, establish the robust technologies and use cases, and drive the ecosystem’s implementation of 6G whilst ensuring it will be open source, interoperable and practical. The clearest market endorsement of AI came at the end of 2025 when Nvidia announced it plans to invest $1 billion in Nokia to further develop AI-RAN solutions. To that end, Nvidia also introduced its Aerial RAN Computer (ARC) Pro which will run 5G, 6G and AI together at existing cell sites, with the goal of enabling operators to move from 5G to 6G, mostly via software upgrades. Furthermore, T-Mobile is planning to evaluate the pair’s technologies in 2026. However, adopting the huge processing power associated with AI comes at a significant energy consumption cost, not necessarily compatible with bold “net-zero” statements from 6G visionaries. It seems the commercial pressure to implement the AI-driven features will win this battle and there is already some softening of the green credentials of 6G.
Lessons learned from 5G
The transition from 5G to 6G will be shaped by the industry’s experience with 5G deployments. In particular to avoid the complex migration from NSA to SA which limited the availability of industrial low-latency use cases, avoid architectural complexity, and make key features such as network slicing easier to adopt.
There is little enthusiasm for commercial entities for an entirely new core, so a simplified, cloud-native network architecture and embedded AI which builds on 5G’s adoption of virtual machines to facilitate, software-driven deployment, more agile network updates and early access to key use cases is preferred.
Standards and timeline
As ever the roadmap to the next generation of mobile technology is in accordance with the release of 3GPP standards. R20 will be the first milestone, with early 6G studies focusing on ITU-oriented and general RAN studies. The first official 6G specifications are expected in Release 21, targeted for submission to IMT-2030. This release will define the technical requirements and form the foundation of 6G from which chipset suppliers will be able to design their first prototypes. The first commercial 6G services are anticipated to appear around 2030. The US will get a taste of what is to come at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) plans to host demonstrations during the event of the emerging technology such as virtual/enhanced reality (XR). Encouragingly, NTT DOCOMO announced recently that it has successfully conducted the world’s first outdoor 6G demonstration using real-time transceiver systems with an AI-powered RAN.
The operator’s perspective
Claire Chauvin, Strategy Architecture & Standards Director at Orange starts with the fundamental question, “Do our customers really need another G?”
From an operator like Orange’s perspective, it is essential that certain capabilities and functions designed into 6G to make it practical and profitable. The first consideration is to identify clear additional and monetizable use cases that will justify the investment. There also needs to be a smooth migration path from 5G that will maximise the re-use of network infrastructure, primarily in the core.
To maximise the efficiency and value of 6G, it must be cloud-native to be configurable on demand and AI-native to embed autonomy required to support new enterprise applications, from day one. Furthermore, there should be global frequency provision and a smooth, well-defined migration path from 5G within a worldwide standards framework as well as open interfaces and the disaggregation of hardware to facilitate the seamless adoption of new network elements.
Chauvin highlights energy efficiency as a core requirement of 6G with the ability to provide coverage, capacity, and performance where it is needed and not waste it where it is not required. She also sees a new approach to ubiquitous coverage that integrates terrestrial cellular networks with non-terrestrial networks (NTN) and non-cellular technologies to ensure broad and resilient coverage.
The focus for Orange is on the provision of new applications of 6G, particularly to enterprises, that will be available on demand. Finally, however 6G is implemented, the need for security resilience, and reliability are core to the success of 6G.
6G Checklist
- AI-native and cloud-native: AI will be embedded throughout 6G networks, enabling automated operations, optimised resource allocation, and intelligent decision-making.
- Resilience and security: Building robust networks capable of withstanding disasters, heavy traffic, and cyber security threats.
- New services and use cases: 6G will enable advanced capabilities like integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), immersive XR experiences and new public safety applications.
- Efficiency and simplicity: AI-driven automation and streamlined network design are expected to increase operational efficiency and reduce complexity.
- Interoperability: Open and interoperable interfaces will promote innovation and prevent market fragmentation.
- Evolution not revolution in the RAN. Emphasis on sub-6 GHz and upper mid-range frequency bands.
- A standalone (SA) 6G architecture: avoiding NSA deployment complexities such as the need for a lower generation anchor and compromised performance.
- Ubiquitous, integrated connectivity: Ensuring seamless interworking between different access technologies such as terrestrial networks, NTN, Wi-Fi, and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), to ensure consistent global coverage.
