According to Verizon and Ericsson, the two companies have completed a successful demonstration of the first pre-standard 6G field call in the 7 GHz spectrum band, which took place from a Verizon commercial network site in Concord, California.
Standards for 6G networks have yet to be ratified but the comms industry is working to a commercial roll-out in 2029, even though it is expected that the city of Los Angeles will roll out a 6G network for the Olympic Games being held there in 2028.
In a bid to move 6G from theoretical discussion into practical reality, Verizon has completed “successful recent field trials” with founding members Samsung and Qualcomm. It has already demonstrated use cases based on Isac technology, which is essentially designed to transform a cellular network into a large, distributed radar-like sensor, using 5G Advanced capabilities as a stepping stone to evolve to 6G.
The two companies describe the field test as being built for real-world learning. An Ericsson 6G proof-of-concept kit was deployed at the site. Test validation was completed, moving 6G from lab integration into a real-world environment where performance can be assessed both outdoors and as signals move from outside in through buildings.
The base station for the test was installed separately in a site shelter, while the user equipment was in a small house on wheels – an approximately 3.66m by 2.44m enclosure that supported stationary outdoor and indoor radio configurations. It included dedicated power and battery backup, with varied wall and window materials to enable differentiated testing of indoor coverage, using a pre-standard 6G stack with a 400 MHz carrier.
The trial did not only form an indoor penetration test but also had the confirmed field result of an outdoor call, while the broader proof-of-concept examined how 6G performance carries from open air into indoor spaces. Testing characterised coverage, throughput, latency, stability and feature behaviour under realistic conditions, including line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight paths, foliage, obstacles and outside-in penetration through different glass and building materials.
The forms stressed that while they see trial as a milestone, they regard it as continuing the path to 6G with a pre-standard proof-of-concept demonstration and not as a commercial 6G service launch.
The firms said that they will continue analysing field results and applying the learnings to future 6G research, testing and deployment planning. Over time, they expect 6G to bring more programmable, responsive and context-aware connectivity, potentially enabling new experiences and use cases across immersive communications, AI-native services, industrial automation and robotics.
Commenting on the test and the results, Hannes Ekström, head of customer unit Verizon at Ericsson, said: “These are the field learnings that can help turn the promise of 6G into deployable technology and, over time, unlock new possibilities for highly responsive, intelligent and immersive connectivity.”
Ericsson is a founding member of the Verizon’s 6G Innovation Forum (6GIF), launched in 2025, to establish what Verizon said will be an open, diversified and resilient 6G ecosystem and develop foundational 6G technologies. The operator has recently been working with Samsung to take a key 6G technology out of the lab and into a live real-world environment.
“As a founding member of the Verizon 6G Innovation Forum, Ericsson plays a vital role in our shared mission to build an open, diversified ecosystem and move 6G from theoretical research into practical, real-world reality,” added Yago Tenorio, chief technology officer and senior vice-president of technology development at Verizon.
“This outdoor 6G milestone demonstrates how close industry collaboration helps us generate the key technical insights needed to shape global standards and understand how future 6G networks could be designed, deployed and experienced.”
