ABI Research: 6G Radio Installed Base by Region from 2029 to 2034
According to ABI Research, fewer than 0.35 million 6G-supported radios are expected to be deployed worldwide at the end of 2029. That’s understandable, because those “6G radios” will be pre-standard deployments. The IMT 2030 Radio Interface Technology (RIT) standards won’t be completed till the end of 2030!
By 2034, around 7.2 million 6G radios will have been deployed, as per the market research firm’s forecast. The Asia-Pacific region (4 million deployments by 2034) will likely see the first major global deployment of this new generation of radio equipment. North America (1.2 million deployments by 2034) and Europe (940K deployments by 2034) will also see significant deployments once telecom operators complete their own transition from 5G densification to 6G expansion.
6G deployments are forecast to start low, due to continuing ITU-R standards/3GPP specifications work and early network operator caution, with rapid growth after 2031 to 2032 as mobile operators complete their overall first phase of 6G deployments and more operators gain confidence for scaled rollouts.
ABI is treating 6G as a multi-layer infrastructure market: not just spectrum and radios, but also core evolution, advanced antenna systems, and sensing/AI convergence. In practice, that means the report should help answer questions like where to target product planning, how regional adoption may diverge, and which infrastructure subsegments could capture early 6G spend.
ABI’s broader 5G/6G research service also emphasizes spectrum and infrastructure planning, advanced antenna systems, and Open RAN-adjacent market intelligence, which fits the framing of this 6G report as part of a wider network infrastructure portfolio.
References:
https://www.abiresearch.com/news-resources/chart-data/6g-radios-installed-base-forecast
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