Ericsson Conducts First Live 6G Trial in US
Ericsson has conducted what it calls the world's first live 6G trial in the United States, demonstrating the technology's potential for AI robotics and real-time video streaming. The test, performed in Texas, utilized new 6G centimeter-wave spectrum and a cloud-native infrastructure to power a cloud-hosted large language model for processing robotics. This demonstration supports American development of AI-native 6G capabilities.
The over-the-air (OTA) trial was conducted at Ericsson's North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, utilizing a pre-standard 6G system. This end-to-end architecture featured radio hardware, RAN Compute, and a software-defined air interface running on a cloud-native platform deployable on both CPUs and GPUs. The demonstration is a key step in validating system-level readiness for future 6G capabilities. This test is part of a broader push for U.S. leadership in 6G, supported by government focus on early research, global standards, and forward-looking spectrum policy. The U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) released a National Spectrum Strategy in late 2023, identifying the 7.125-8.4 GHz band for study for wireless broadband use, a crucial step for future 6G deployment. The demonstration focused on Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), a technology expected to be a core component of 6G. By integrating sensing capabilities into the communication network, ISAC allows the network itself to function like a radar system, detecting and locating passive objects like drones without them needing a network connection. This capability is progressing in 3GPP Release 19 studies. Ericsson is collaborating with an ecosystem of partners to accelerate 6G development, including recent work with Apple and MediaTek to showcase pre-standard 5G and 6G spectrum sharing. The company is also working with Qualcomm on 6G prototypes, focusing on the centimeter-wave (cmWave) spectrum around 6-8 GHz and presenting study items for 3GPP Release 20. The global race to 6G is highly competitive, with nations like China, South Korea, and Japan making significant investments and setting ambitious timelines. China has already launched test satellites, while South Korea aims for some form of 6G service by 2028. European efforts are often collaborative, such as the Hexa-X project which includes Nokia and Ericsson. Commercial deployment of 6G is broadly expected around 2030.
