Telecommunications executives, wireless engineers, and standards bodies are shifting 6G from early concepts to engineering specifications in October 2026. Rather than advocating for a costly hardware overhaul, industry leaders are rallying around an incremental path that uses 5G standalone (SA) networks as the direct architectural starting point for 6G. Across recent industry panels and field trials, carriers and vendors are balancing long-term standards work—targeted for initial commercial deployment around 2030—against the immediate need to generate a return on existing 5G investments through new capabilities like network sensing and artificial intelligence.

The 5G Standalone Foundation and Architectural Debates

A primary point of agreement among wireless engineers is that 6G must build upon the cloudification, service-based architecture, open interfaces, and disaggregation established by 5G, according to RCR Wireless News. During an industry panel moderated by Mohamed Abbas, principal analyst at OpenSignal, experts from Nokia, Orange, Viavi Solutions, and Cohere Technologies emphasized that 6G should avoid the fragmented rollout strategy of early 5G. Those initial deployments relied on non-standalone (NSA) configurations that anchored 5G New Radio to older 4G core networks, getting networks live faster but limiting access to native 5G capabilities.

Ömer Bulakci, chairman of the SNS JU 6G Architecture Working Group and standardization team leader at Nokia, argued that a single standalone architecture is required to capture value-creating innovations from day one of 6G. The envisioned migration path moves incrementally from baseline 5G to 5G SA, followed by 5G-Advanced and 6G-ready infrastructure, before full 6G deployment. However, reaching that starting line presents a hurdle. Citing a Global mobile Suppliers Association (GSA) report, the panel noted that only about 20% of commercial 5G deployments globally operate on a standalone basis, leaving the vast majority of operators reliant on non-standalone configurations.

To protect existing capital investments, the proposed technical approach prioritizes hardware and spectrum reuse. Multi-radio spectrum sharing is projected to add only a couple of percentage points of overhead, allowing carriers to reuse 5G low-band spectrum while adding upper 6 GHz and 7 GHz bands through carrier aggregation.

Despite broad support for an evolutionary transition, technical specifics remain contested. While the RCR Wireless News architecture panel described 5G SA as the common starting point and noted that some vendors still explore a 6G core-first option, separate reporting by RCR Tech and another RCR Wireless News standards analysis indicates that 3GPP migration choices remain unsettled. Open design questions include whether AI should occupy a separate core-network domain, be embedded directly into network functions, or operate via software agents, with one analyst questioning whether a dedicated 6G core is necessary if upgraded 5G network functions suffice.

Field Trials and the AI Uplink Challenge

In the United States, carriers are testing pre-standard hardware and evaluating how artificial intelligence will alter mobile traffic demands. According to TelecomTV, Verizon recently completed its first pre-standard 6G field call in the 7 GHz spectrum band at a commercial network site in Concord, California. Using proof-of-concept technology from Ericsson, the outdoor trial evaluated signal performance in a real-world environment, including how 7 GHz signals propagate from outdoors into buildings. The test is part of Verizon’s 6G Innovation Forum (6GIF), which launched in September 2025 to build standards around practical use cases and recently added nine new members, according to Light Reading.

A central concern for US operators is the shift in network traffic patterns driven by AI. Historically, mobile networks have been engineered heavily toward downlink capacity to support consumers streaming video and downloading data. Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio noted in Light Reading that future AI applications—such as AI wearables and connected sensors continuously uploading video and audio to edge or cloud servers—could balance traffic much more evenly between uplink and downlink. Competing US carriers are addressing similar constraints, with T-Mobile examining uplink and downlink decoupling and AT&T expressing interest in additional upstream capacity.

Data from GSMA Intelligence reinforces this engineering focus. Matthew Iji, head of data modeling and forecasting at GSMA Intelligence, told RCR Wireless News that monthly global mobile network traffic is projected to grow from around 144 exabytes in 2025 to 604 exabytes in 2035. As AI-enabled cameras, sensors, and extended reality (XR) devices generate and upload content, mobile networks will face heightened pressure on uplink capacity, latency, and reliability.

Monetization: From Network Sensing to Physical AI

Rather than waiting for 6G commercial launches, telecom leaders are attempting to pull 6G-era capabilities backward into current networks to establish new revenue streams. Art King, director of product marketing at Cohere Technologies, noted during the architecture panel that both AI and integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) are being accelerated into current deployments due to commercial AI demands and defense imperatives.

Standardization work within 3GPP for ISAC spans 5G-Advanced Releases 19 and 20 before continuing into 6G specifications under Release 21, according to Light Reading. This allows carriers to test sensing business models on existing infrastructure. For example, Verizon collaborated with Lockheed Martin, NVIDIA, ODC, and Astris AI to test NetSense, an airspace-awareness service built on current 5G infrastructure. Pilot deployments for NetSense are planned for 2026 and early 2027, with general commercial availability targeted for 2027.

Beyond airspace sensing, operators are evaluating revenue opportunities in digital twins, industrial fixed wireless, resilient communications, non-terrestrial networks, and “physical AI” applications such as autonomous robots, drones, and connected industrial machines. In Europe, RCR Wireless News reported that Deutsche Telekom frames future networks as systems that sense, interpret, and act on information, adapting latency, jitter, and network slices to specific application demands.

However, industry analysts remain divided on the commercial viability of these services. While Light Reading highlights efforts to build sensing business cases on 5G-Advanced, analyst commentary in RCR Tech and RCR Wireless News cautions that technical use cases do not guarantee a paying market, noting that customer demand, service reliability, and the protection of standard communications traffic remain unproven at scale.

Timelines and Operator Economics

The timeline for 6G deployment will be governed as much by carrier balance sheets as by engineering milestones. According to RCR Tech, the first normative 6G specifications under 3GPP Release 21 are scheduled for a functional freeze in December 2028, with initial commercial systems broadly anticipated around 2030.

Once commercial rollouts begin, adoption is expected to scale gradually alongside existing networks. GSMA Intelligence forecasts approximately 50 million global 6G connections by the end of 2030, rising to 275 million in 2031, nearly 740 million in 2032, and 1.3 billion in 2033, before climbing to 1.9 billion in 2034 and 2.4 billion in 2035, according to RCR Wireless News. By the end of 2035, around half of North American mobile connections are projected to run on 6G. Globally, however, 5G will remain dominant, accounting for roughly 60% of mobile connections in 2035 compared to 23% for 6G and 17% for 4G.

Frequently Asked Questions

How quickly will carriers move to 5G standalone to prepare for 6G?

While engineers agree that 5G standalone (SA) is the preferred architectural foundation for 6G, only about 20% of commercial 5G networks globally have completed the transition from non-standalone configurations. Operators must close this deployment gap over the next several years to enable a smooth, incremental upgrade to 6G.

Which existing network assets can operators reuse for 6G?

Under proposed migration frameworks, operators aim to preserve their 5G core architecture, cloud infrastructure, and existing radio assets. Through multi-radio spectrum sharing—which adds only a couple of percentage points of overhead—carriers can reuse 5G low-band spectrum while aggregating new upper 6 GHz and 7 GHz bands for added capacity.

Can network sensing generate revenue before 6G launches?

Carriers are actively testing integrated sensing and communications on existing 5G networks, such as Verizon’s NetSense airspace-awareness trials scheduled for commercial availability in 2027. However, analysts note that while the technology works in trials, proving that enterprise or government customers will pay for sensing services at scale remains an unresolved challenge.

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