The journey to 6G is not about waiting for 2029 - it is about making the right decisions today!

The journey to 6G is not about waiting for 2029. It is about making the right decisions today so that 6G arrives as open, interoperable, intelligent, and deployable from day one!

At the O-RAN ALLIANCE Summit during MWC Barcelona 2026, operators clearly expressed that 6G is not expected to be another disruptive “shiny new box.” It must evolve pragmatically from 5G - preserving investments while advancing AI-native capabilities, scalable interfaces and software-driven innovation.

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Deployability matters as much as innovation. Technology choices, such as spectrum, infrastructure, compute and others, must align with real-world operational economics and business value.

This is where O-RAN ALLIANCE matters:

• Ensuring that open interfaces and programmability remain foundational to avoid fragmentation, reduce complexity, and support a healthy multi-vendor ecosystem.
• At the same time, embedding intelligence from the start - AI RAN is expected to shape 6G not as an add-on, but as a core design principle.

Yet operators also made clear they do not want to wait for 6G to realize these benefits. AI RAN, software-driven architectures, and sensing innovation are already being pursued now through O-RAN frameworks. The path to 6G is not a countdown to a specification release — it is a build-up to ecosystem readiness, starting with a solid 5G foundation and building to 6G capabilities.

The O-RAN ALLIANCE is helping lay that foundation now so 6G can be intelligent and open from day one.

For more on the path to 6G, check the O-RAN ALLIANCE Summit (available for free), especially the 6G panel.

Featuring:

• Femi Adeyemi, VP and Head of Strategic Product Management, 1Finity
• Rob Soni, VP RAN Technology, AT&T
• Lorenzo Casaccia, VP & Head of Technology Standards, Qualcomm Technologies
• Gabriel Brown, Senior Principal analyst, mobile networks at Omdia as the panel moderator