STOCKHOLM - Ericsson in Stockholm announced it has completed what it calls the world's first 6G pre-standard over-the-air session, marking a milestone toward commercial 6G networks and reinforcing U.S. involvement in next-generation wireless development.
The milestone was achieved on a pre-standard 6G system using a trusted, end-to-end architecture designed to be artificial intelligence (AI)- and cloud-native. Conducted at Ericsson's U.S. headquarters in Plano, Texas, the OTA session validated several proposed 6G building blocks, including radio hardware, RAN Compute, software-defined air interfaces, and cloud platforms. The company's software architecture is designed to be deployable on multiple hardware platforms, including CPU and GPU systems.
"Ericsson's 6G demonstration is an important milestone in next-generation wireless innovation, enabled by American ingenuity," said Howard Lutnick, U.S. Secretary of Commerce. "The Trump Administration will always back our trusted partners, and we are committed to an American-designed and operated future of cutting-edge connectivity."
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"6G will be foundational to how artificial intelligence scales across society and will be critical to the national security, economic prosperity, and global competitiveness of the United States," said Börje Ekholm, president and chief executive officer of Ericsson. "Completing this world's first live 6G trial in the United States is a tangible proof point that advanced wireless innovation, manufacturing, and research is anchored here, supporting U.S. leadership in next-generation connectivity. We continue to lead innovation alongside the U.S. ecosystem, working with government, partners, operators, enterprises, academia, and startups."
6G demo
According to Ericsson, the 6G trial demonstrated two capabilities intended to prepare networks for AI-driven applications: support for AI-enabled robotics requiring low-latency, high-reliability connectivity for real-time control, and real-time video streaming. As AI expands into robotics, autonomous systems, immersive applications, and industrial automation, wireless infrastructure is expected to play a larger role in supporting low latency, higher uplink capacity, and adaptive network behavior.
Ericsson said the OTA milestone demonstrates that such capabilities are moving toward system-level implementation and positions U.S.-based stakeholders to contribute to global 6G standards and commercialization efforts.
The pre-standard 6G system operated in the spectrum in the 7 GHz range, sometimes referred to as centimeter wave, with a carrier bandwidth of 400 MHz. Ericsson said the trial focused on optimized uplink performance, enhanced energy efficiency, and improved spectral utilization. The demonstration leveraged Ericsson radios, baseband platforms, and cloud-native software and supports ongoing contributions to standards bodies such as 3GPP and Open RAN.
