Ericsson's 6G journey has intelligent fabric as a destination

Ericsson is delivering the enhanced uplink and energy-efficient performance required to support generative, agentic, and physical AI applications. 

The journey starts with 5G Standalone and 5G Advanced, the company said, aiming to arrive at an intelligent fabric that requires AI everywhere in each domain and layer across the full network. This requires integrating intelligence directly into radios, powered by Ericsson Silicon. AI must also be incorporated into all other aspects of a network, from RAN Compute and software through transport, OSS/BSS, management and the core network. 

Ultimately, Ericsson said these AI elements will empower its customers to develop the autonomous networks that are a vital part of the journey to 6G. 

Ericsson's foundational ecosystem work at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2026 (MWC) includes: 

- Ericsson and Intel collaborating to accelerate AI-native 6G across compute, connectivity and cloud, spanning AI-driven RAN and packet core use cases plus platform security, and network capabilities to help enhance ecosystem enablement and time-to-market for cloud-native solutions. The collaboration will advance future high-performance, and energy-efficient compute architectures designed for both AI for networks and networks for AI.

Börje Ekholm, President and CEO, Ericsson, said: “6G is not merely an iteration of mobile technology. It is the infrastructure that will distribute AI across devices, the edge and the cloud. Ericsson’s long history of network innovation and large-scale operator deployments positions us to lead practical integration across the value chain and move 6G from research into commercial reality.”

Lip-Bu Tan, CEO, Intel, said: “Intel’s ambition is to be the undisputed technology leader in unifying RAN, core and edge AI to enable a seamless transition to AI-native 6G environments. Together with Ericsson, we will continue to demonstrate that the future of network connectivity is open, power-efficient, secure and grounded in intelligent AI inference. 

"With future Ericsson silicon, powered by Intel’s most advanced process nodes, ongoing multiyear research plans, and flexible AI-RAN-ready cloud RAN powered by Intel Xeon, we are well on our way to delivering the future performance, efficiency, and supply security that the world’s leading operators require.”

Ericsson said AI-native 6G will combine intelligent and programmable networks with advanced compute and real-time sensing, creating a stronger foundation for more responsive, efficient and capable services. Over time, that evolution could bring sensing and compute closer together across the network.

- Architectural guidance and advancing a portable, open-source centralised unit/distributed unit (CU/DU) software stack under the Linux Foundation's OCUDU initiative. Ericsson has joined the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation as a founding premier member, underscoring its commitment to open innovation in RAN software. Ericsson will hold a seat on the Foundation’s Board of Directors.

- Ericsson is also joining NVIDIA and partners to advance AI-native, open platforms that embed AI across the RAN, edge and core to strengthen security and trust for physical AI.

NVIDIA announced a commitment — together with Booz Allen, BT Group, Cisco, Deutsche Telekom, Ericsson, MITRE, Nokia, the OCUDU Ecosystem Foundation, ODC, SK Telecom, SoftBank and T-Mobile — to build the next generation of wireless networks on AI-native, open, secure and trustworthy platforms.

The initiative represents a shared commitment to ensure 6G infrastructure is open, intelligent, resilient, accelerates innovation, and safeguards global trust.

- In addition, Ericsson is participating in a coalition with Qualcomm, announced at MWC, that sets a milestone-driven roadmap toward 6G commercial systems starting from 2029 onwards.

Erik Ekudden, Group CTO, Ericsson said: "We are already on the journey toward an intelligent fabric, and it is happening right now. With clear proof points across the entire network, we are proving that a fully AI-powered network is not a distant capability five years out. By bringing intelligence into every domain today, we are giving the industry the foundation it needs to scale the next generation of AI."

According to Ericsson, it is essential to ensure devices and networks are interoperable as soon as possible as commercial 6G is targeted for 2030. At MWC 2026, Ericsson provided the pre-standard systems that device makers depend on to validate their technology:

- Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies validated foundational 6G physical-layer capabilities in lab prototypes, including cmWave exploration around 6–8 GHz to highlight enhanced uplink performance. 

The two partners jointly developed and validated key physical layer capabilities in a prototype environment, and presented agreed-upon study items for 3GPP 6G Release 20, including a 400 MHz component carrier with 30 kHz subcarrier spacing. 

Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies are also jointly prototyping emerging AI and augmented reality (AR) experiences with new device form-factors and resilient infrastructure, advancing a broader collaboration on AI‑native, context aware 6G networks with device–network collaborative compute, optimised uplink coverage, and premium wide‑area experiences at scale. These capabilities are being trialled with leading operators to advance the ecosystem.

 

Source: Ericsson. Visual illustrating 6G capabilities.

- Ericsson and Apple demonstrated live Multi-RAT spectrum sharing (MRSS) between a 5G and a simulated 6G system, showing a smoother migration path without resource waste. This solution will help communication service providers with smooth 5G to 6G migration and coexistence, minimising resource waste and signalling overhead. Two systems, one on 5G and one simulating 6G, were connected to an Ericsson base station operating in the  time division duplex (TDD) mid-band, validating real-time interoperability and performance of MRSS.

- Ericsson and MediaTek integrated 6G testbed radio with a MediaTek user equipment prototype, completing a data call and highlighting a 6G feature, contention-based buffer status reporting.  The demonstration showed how 6G cm-wave can meet increased data demands from new applications and devices. These include AI-enhanced extended reality (XR) and low-latency applications, supported by early prototype systems built around ongoing 3GPP standardisation and anticipated 6G features. 

With the first implementable 3GPP specifications targeted for 2029, Ericsson's work with partners is building the interoperability proof points CSPs will need to deploy 6G with confidence, the company said. 

Explore 

The recorded MWC 2026 panel discussion, How to make 6G a winning proposition, features Ericsson alongside industry leaders from AT&T, T-Mobile, and Qualcomm discussing the roadmap to commercialisation and the opportunities ahead.

Hashtag: #6G,  #ericssonmwc, #MWC, #MWC26, #MWC2026

*OSS/BSS stands for operations support systems/business support systems. RAN refers to radio access network.