Verizon has established a 6G Innovation Forum with a group of companies to drive innovation and enabling the 6G era. Verizon’s future-forward initiative is uniting key players across the technology ecosystem, including leading network vendors Ericsson, Samsung Electronics, and Nokia; and device and chipset innovators Meta, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., in the early stages of development to define 6G together by identifying potential new use cases, devices and network technology. The forum aims to establish an open, diversified, and resilient 6G ecosystem and develop foundational 6G technologies while ensuring global alignment.

This effort underscores Verizon’s commitment to drive the collaborative evolution of connectivity and deliver transformative experiences for consumers and enterprises. Verizon’s networks form the backbone of the emerging Artificial Intelligence economy, delivering the infrastructure and expertise essential for businesses to fully harness AI’s potential. For over a decade, Verizon has integrated AI into its operations to optimize network performance and infrastructure, a commitment that will continue with the evolution of 6G. This will accelerate Verizon’s AI Connect strategy and intelligent edge capabilities, enabling businesses to manage real-time AI workloads at scale by leveraging Verizon’s comprehensive suite of solutions with its award-winning network.

The forum will move beyond theoretical discussions and rapidly progress toward tangible 6G advancements and the realization of potential new and innovative use cases. Key areas of focus will include:

• Unlocking the full potential of 6G by testing new spectrum bands and bandwidths.
• Fostering a globally harmonized 6G landscape by actively working with global standards bodies like 3GPP to ensure that the forum’s work aligns with mainstream 6G development and promotes interoperability across the industry.
• Allowing forum partners to test and refine 6G technologies in a real-world environment by establishing dedicated Verizon 6G Labs, starting in Los Angeles, to serve as hubs for collaborative research, prototyping, and early lab and field trials.

“Verizon is consistently at the forefront of network innovation. We were the first in the world to turn up 5G and continue to enhance our best, most reliable and fastest 5G network in ways that open the door to possibilities far beyond what we can imagine today,” said Joe Russo, EVP & President, Global Networks and Technology at Verizon. “5G Advanced lays the foundation for the 6G future – whether that’s new wearables, AI experiences, or entirely new use cases we haven’t even thought of yet, and that’s what excites me the most. With the best team in the industry, we will build the future of these solutions with our partners. We’re already building a network designed for the next era – one that will transform how we live, work and play.”

Yago Tenorio, the chief technology officer of Verizon told Light Reading he wants the Forum to identify and refine 6G use cases before technology details are agreed upon by 3GPP and ITU-R WP5D.  Smart glasses combined with artificial intelligence (AI) have arguably emerged as the prime candidate to succeed smartphones as a mass-market 6G consumer gadget. Last week, displayed the sort of smart glasses that could become popular in a future 6G scenario.

“One example of why this forum matters is that if you go to the standards today there is a lot of talk about uplink capacity with eight antennas in the device,” Tenorio said . “I don’t have any problem with that. It’s going to be very useful for FWA [fixed wireless access] and maybe useful for some smartphones, some classes of devices. But can you imagine a wearable with eight antennas? I mean, it’s difficult enough to have two,” he added.

Comment and Analysis:

It seems there are way too many 6G Forums and Consortiums that overlap and potentially can generate conflicting specifications.  The two main bodies are ITU-R and 3GPP.

• ITU-R WP5D sets the formal requirements for terrestrial international mobile telecommunications (IMT) and is working on the framework for IMT-2030 (the official designation for 6G). This framework, outlined in the ITU-R’s IMT-2030 vision and Recommendation ITU-R M. 2160, includes key aspects like technology trends, usage scenarios, and performance capabilities for the next generation of mobile networks.  5D also develops the minimum technical performance requirements (TPRs) for IMT-2030 (“6G”) which will be specified in a Report ITU-R M. [IMT-2030.TECH PERF REQ]. In February 2025,  WP5D discussed a draft document on these requirements, and the next step is to detail the specific values for key metrics like peak data rate and spectral efficiency, with candidates for the radio interfaces to be submitted by early 2029 and finalized around mid-2030.
• 3GPP creates cellular specifications which are submitted to ITU-R WP5D by ATIS as contributions directed towards Radio Interface Technologies (RITs) and Sets of Radio Interface Technologies (SRITs).  3GPP began its 6G study work in 2024. It is working toward a first-phase 6G specification to be completed in Release 21 by late 2028, which will be submitted for consideration as the IMT 2030 RIT/SRIT standard. Note that ONLY 3GPP defines the 5G and 6G core network specifications.  There is no serious work in ITU-T for the non-radio aspects of 5G or 6G.

Summary of 6G Forums:

• Next G Alliance: An initiative within the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS) to advance North American leadership in wireless technology. It includes working groups focused on creating a 6G roadmap, defining applications and use cases, and addressing spectrum issues.
• AI-RAN Alliance: This group brings together technology and telecom leaders to integrate artificial intelligence (AI) directly into radio access network (RAN) technology to improve network performance, efficiency, and resource utilization in the lead-up to 6G.
• Verizon 6G Innovation Forum: Established in September 2025, this consortium unites companies such as Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Meta, and Qualcomm to develop the 6G ecosystem, identify use cases, and define foundational technologies.
• Brooklyn 6G Summit (B6GS): An annual flagship event hosted by Nokia and NYU, bringing together vendors, academia, and operators to discuss 6G research and innovation. 

• 6G Smart Networks and Services Industry Association (6G-IA): A European-based group that represents the private sector and collaborates with the European Commission on 6G research initiatives. It oversees projects like Hexa-X and Hexa-X-II, which have helped define the 6G vision.
• 6G Flagship (Finland): Based at the University of Oulu, this is one of the world’s first 6G research programs. It leads multiple national and international projects, working to develop the components, tools, and test network for a 6G-enabled digital world.
• one6G: This non-profit association works to accelerate the adoption of next-generation wireless technologies by supporting global 6G research and standardization. 

• China IMT-2030 (6G) Promotion Group, established in 2019 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) to coordinate government, academia, and industry efforts in promoting 6G research, development, and international cooperation. The group focuses on defining technical standards, exploring new applications like integrated sensing and non-terrestrial networks, and aims for 6G commercialization around 2030.
• 6G Forum (Korea): An organization working to lead and promote the evolution of wireless technology beyond 5G and into 6G, encouraging collaboration between industries, government, and academia.
• Bharat 6G Alliance (India): A partnership between Indian companies, academia, and research organizations to accelerate the country’s innovation and collaboration in 6G.
• XG Mobile Promotion Forum (Japan): This group, which has a memorandum of understanding with the Next G Alliance, focuses on advancing the 5G and 6G ecosystem. 

• IEEE Future Networks: This IEEE initiative includes a Testbed Working Group that collaborates with existing 5G testbeds to accelerate the development of next-generation networks, including 6G.
• Research initiatives: Numerous specific projects and academic consortia worldwide are also driving focused research on various aspects of 6G, such as integrating AI into networks or developing specific components.
• See References below for more collaborative efforts directed at 6G.

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References:

https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-leads-future-wireless-development-new-industry-6g-forum

https://www.lightreading.com/6g/verizon-cto-worries-whether-6g-will-measure-up-in-the-us

Verizon launches 6G forum; it’s all about the use cases, CTO says

https://www.ericsson.com/en/6g/spectrum

ITU-R WP5D IMT 2030 Submission & Evaluation Guidelines vs 6G specs in 3GPP Release 20 & 21

ITU-R WP 5D reports on: IMT-2030 (“6G”) Minimum Technology Performance Requirements; Evaluation Criteria & Methodology

Highlights of 3GPP Stage 1 Workshop on IMT 2030 (6G) Use Cases

Ericsson and e& (UAE) sign MoU for 6G collaboration vs ITU-R IMT-2030 framework

ITU-R: IMT-2030 (6G) Backgrounder and Envisioned Capabilities

ITU-R WP5D invites IMT-2030 RIT/SRIT contributions

NGMN issues ITU-R framework for IMT-2030 vs ITU-R WP5D Timeline for RIT/SRIT Standardization

Qualcomm CEO: expect “pre-commercial” 6G devices by 2028