The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance emphasizes the importance of global cooperation in strengthening digital infrastructure and progressing towards a 6G world.
While the potential of 5G is still unknown, discussions about 6G are slowly gaining momentum. Positioned as the next evolution of communications networks in the 2030s, 3GPP (the global standards body for mobile networks) has been actively shaping this future through its latest standards work. 3GPP Release 20 is considered an important milestone in finalizing 5G-Advanced enhancements while laying the technical foundation for 6G networks.
With 3GPP finalizing Stage 1 of Release 20 (Service Requirements for Initial 6G Exploration) in 2025 and now moving towards Stage 2 (6G Architecture Consideration) in 2026, the mobile industry is at a pivotal point in defining what the next generation of mobile communications will be.
The focus of the mobile industry is now shifting to providing additional user value beyond what 5G can offer, network simplification, sustainability, and a smooth transition from 5G to 6G. This also includes newly emerging challenges such as the impact of advances in AI, quantum safety, and resiliency, which are among the most discussed topics in 6G standardization.
But what is the global vision for 6G?
Mobile operator goals for 6G
To shape it, key industry players, including mobile network operators (MNOs), vendors, and academia, must work together to establish a unified path to next-generation mobile connectivity.
The view of the world’s leading mobile carriers is that the continued evolution of the mobile industry and its underlying technologies must be beneficial for end users, carriers and the ecosystem at large.
As a foundation, 6G is expected to build on the features and capabilities introduced by 5G and learn from its mistakes. The transition from 5G must be approached with minimal complexity, enabling operators to take advantage of rapid deployment, and in particular by providing native voice support from day one, ensuring a seamless user experience while enabling businesses to evolve voice and rich services in a sustainable manner.
6G should not force hardware updates, support a healthy ecosystem, and create value through new services that meet the needs of an increasingly ICT-dependent society.
While deployment in new frequency bands will require new radio equipment, the evolution to 6G in existing bands will primarily occur through software upgrades, ensuring a smooth transition. To demonstrate significant performance benefits, it is important to compare new 6G radio access technologies (RATs) against a reasonable baseline. For example, at a minimum, wireless expansion candidates must demonstrate significant advantages over 3GPP Release 18 in 5G-Advanced standards.
What are the main drivers behind the 6G evolution?
Advances in such technology need to be evaluated in terms of their benefits and associated impacts. To realize this advantage, the mobile industry must improve operational efficiency, simplify network operations, and enable network exposure that facilitates the development of market-aligned services. With that in mind, modularity, flexibility, and openness are highlighted as key drivers.
The mobile industry must develop solutions that meet user demands, but investments in network upgrades must be justified by ROI and lead to clear customer value. Therefore, solutions must prioritize efficiency improvements, especially in spectrum utilization and energy consumption.
Key requirements for future networks
To address key societal goals and global challenges, future communications networks must be environmentally friendly, economically sustainable, reliable, and able to support innovative services that meet practical needs.
Sustainability efforts should focus on minimizing environmental impact, ensuring economic viability, and ensuring social responsibility across the ecosystem.
Equally important is reliability. Security and privacy must be inherently built into 6G architecture systems to protect against threats and provide solutions that measurably demonstrate this characteristic. They must leverage evolving security paradigms and technologies and implement quantum-secure approaches, zero-trust architectures, and enhance security, privacy, and resiliency.
Innovative services also remain a driving force. For example, new radio interfaces must demonstrate significant advantages over IMT-2020 (ITU’s 5G network standard), while taking into account the practical issues associated with their deployment in realistic techno-economic conditions.
6G requirements also include backward compatibility with 5G, connectivity, AI, sensing, computing requirements, cost implications, and interaction with the environment. Networks for AI and AI for networks: Connecting AI to end-to-end network infrastructure.
When designing 6G networks, the industry should strive to incorporate system architectural considerations such as openness, cloud nativeness, and isolation, as well as enhancements, new features, and trade-off analysis between various features.
Rapid rise in AI
AI is advancing rapidly and will remain a dominant force reshaping society well beyond the 6G era. This includes both “networking for AI,” which uses AI to optimize, manage, and evolve network operations, and “AI for networking,” which designs networks that can support AI workloads and applications.
Therefore, it is important to thoroughly analyze the impact of AI on 6G to ensure that future 6G architectures are on the trajectory of future AI technologies. 5G deployment was hampered by architectural complexity and migration path. For 6G to be successful, simplification must be a central design principle from the beginning.
The importance of global coordination
The evolution of communication networks is essential to ensure that future communication networks are environmentally friendly, economically sustainable, reliable and capable of supporting innovative services that meet practical needs and address societal goals. To achieve this objective, it is important that 6G standards are harmonized globally.
A key leader in aligning the mobile industry along this path is the Next Generation Mobile Network Alliance (NGMN). As a global operator-led organization, NGMN provides guidance for innovative, sustainable and affordable next-generation mobile network infrastructure, fostering collaboration and driving unity.
With major 6G milestones on the horizon and standardization underway, NGMN provides a foundation for engaging with the broader industry and outlines strategic direction by articulating MNOs’ requirements early in standardization and development.
This article features and cites the NGMN publication “6G Key Messages – An Operator View” developed by the NGMN Alliance Board.
This article will also be published in the quarterly magazine issue 24.
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