Ericsson Conducts First Live 6G Trial
Ericsson has conducted the world's first live 6G trial in Texas, showcasing its use for AI-powered robotics and real-time video streaming. The demonstration used new 6G centimeter wave spectrum and cloud-native infrastructure. The milestone is positioned as supporting American leadership in AI-native 6G technology.
The trial took place at Ericsson's U.S. headquarters in Plano, Texas, a facility that also serves as a major hub for advanced wireless R&D. This demonstration is part of a broader push to solidify American leadership in 6G, with the technology being framed as critical for national security and economic competitiveness. The work in Texas is complemented by Ericsson's nearby 5G Smart Factory in Lewisville, where the company says it will also manufacture next-generation 6G equipment. At the core of the demonstration was the use of centimeter wave (cmWave) spectrum, with research pointing to the 7 GHz to 15 GHz range as a key enabler for 6G. This part of the spectrum is seen as a "sweet spot" that offers both the high capacity needed for future applications and better coverage compared to the higher-frequency millimeter wave bands used in 5G. The trial utilized a pre-standard 6G system built on a cloud-native and AI-native architecture, designed to be flexible and deployable on various hardware platforms. The showcase of AI-powered robotics and real-time video streaming points to a fundamental shift where networks are built to support artificial intelligence. As AI applications become more complex, moving beyond smartphones to autonomous systems and industrial automation, the wireless infrastructure itself becomes a critical component of the AI technology stack. This requires networks that can adapt and compute in real-time, providing consistent low latency and higher uplink capacity. This live trial represents a move from concept to the validation of key 6G building blocks, including the radio hardware and software-defined air interfaces. Ericsson is not working in isolation, with collaborations and planned demonstrations with major ecosystem partners like Apple, MediaTek, and Qualcomm for events such as MWC 2026. These partnerships focus on everything from ensuring devices and networks can interoperate to developing new radio technologies and AI-native features for the 6G era.
