TECHnalysis Research Blogs
TECHnalysis Research president Bob O'Donnell publishes commentary on current tech industry trends every week at LinkedIn.com in the TECHnalysis Research Insights Newsletter and those blog entries are reposted here as well. In addition, those columns are also reprinted on Techspot and SeekingAlpha.

He also writes a regular column in the Tech section of USAToday.com and those columns are posted here. Some of the USAToday columns are also published on partner sites, such as MSN.

He also writes occasional columns for Forbes that can be found here and that are archived here.

In addition, he has written guest columns in various other publications, including RCR Wireless, Fast Company and engadget. Those columns are reprinted here.

March 6, 2026
MWC Highlights Promise and Challenges of 6G

By Bob O'Donnell

Heading to Barcelona for this year’s Mobile World Congress (MWC) I had a feeling there might be some early discussions on the potential for 6G. Boy, was I wrong. Instead of 6G being a sideline topic, it was the center of attention for many of the vendors there. In particular, the theme of how 6G was going to be a critical enabler for hybrid AI applications that span across cloud-based hyperscalers, enterprise data centers, devices and through cellular networks received a surprising amount of consideration at this year’s show. Chip companies like Qualcomm and Nvidia, network infrastructure vendors such as Nokia and Ericsson, and even telcos like T-Mobile and Deutsche Telecom all offered strategic plans and even some early demonstrations for how they were going to tackle the next generation of cellular networks.

From a pure technology enablement perspective, it’s probably not surprising to hear that it was semiconductor vendors like Qualcomm and Nvidia who had some of the most forward-looking perspectives. After all, chip designers have to plan for capabilities they expect will be required several years in advance, so they’re just wired to think that way. Qualcomm, in particular, made a very strong statement on the importance of 6G and numerous technologies they believe can contribute to its evolution. Between CEO Cristiano Amon’s keynote, multiple press events and a slew of announcements, the company positioned itself as a key supplier for everything from next-generation modem designs that can be used for early 6G testing, through advanced AI acceleration silicon for devices and data centers, and AI-powered RAN (Radio Access Network) operation and automation, to implementations of Wide Area Network physical AI applications such as robotics and cars.

For Physical AI, Qualcomm discussed how the new ISAC (Integrated Sensing and Communications) technology that’s expected to be a key differentiator for 6G versus 5G, would play an important role. ISAC leverages something called RF sensing that essentially uses radio frequency waveforms to provide a real-time radar-like view of the physical world around us. In a manner conceptually similar to existing WiFi sensing technology, ISAC tracks the path and reflections of cellular signals sent from towers and uses that data to create a physical display and map of the surrounding area. While it doesn’t offer camera-like visibility (nor does it carry the privacy concerns that networks of connected cameras often have), it provides a great solution for applications like digital twins of locations and facilities, asset tracking, connected cars, robots and much more.

Though not directly tied to 6G, one of the company’s biggest announcements at MWC was the unveiling of its new Snapdragon Wear Elite line of SOCs for wearable devices such as smart watches, smart glasses and more. Wear Elite should significantly improve the on-device AI capabilities of devices that use it. The SOC is the first in the company’s wearable chip line to integrate an NPU, thereby allowing it to run more sophisticated AI models directly on the device itself. Wear Elite also includes an impressive range of low-power wireless connectivity options (including cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, Threads, UWB and satellite) that will enable a wider variety of potential wearable form factors and applications.

Despite not having a physical presence at the show, Nvidia’s impact was strongly felt at this year’s MWC. Given its dominant presence in AI acceleration and the momentum driving telecom providers to offer more of those services, the company’s products and capabilities were an essential ingredient in many of the discussions around AI and 6G. They also had an outsized presence in announcements surrounding the use of AI acceleration for core RAN applications. While Nvidia first introduced the concept of its Aerial software project for using GPUs to both accelerate L1 RAN workloads and run AI applications over 5 years ago, it was only at this year’s MWC did it seem to have a real impact. Up until now, many industry players wrote off GPUs as too expensive, too power hungry and essentially unnecessary for telecom applications, but that perspective had come full circle at this year’s MWC.

In fairness, some of that change was driven by small but important tweaks to how Nvidia talks about Aerial, but most of it comes from how quickly the world around us has changed and how essential AI applications have become. Back in the fall of last year, Nvidia unveiled their Aerial RAN Computer Pro (ARC Pro—not to be confused with Intel’s similarly named GPU technology), which focuses almost exclusively on running core RAN workloads. Instead of using the kilowatt-level GPUs the company is famous for in today’s most advanced data centers, ARC Pro leverages lower power versions that fit within the same type of power envelope (330 watts) of existing non-GPU based solutions. While ARC Pro can also run other AI applications in the same environment, the company has also talked about how more of those workloads are likely to run in telco core network locations such as central offices (CO’s) and other data centers. In these environments, new Vera Rubin-class Nvidia GPUs can run, providing a split computing option that seems better suited to the generally more conservative telco operators.

Nvidia also took central stage with Nokia—whom the company announced a $1 billion investment in last fall—as the network equipment provider announced a number of real-world installations of its Nvidia-powered options for both 5G and 6G environments. Nokia showed off both GPU-equipped upgrade card options for its existing Airscale line of baseband solutions and a new set of GPU-equipped cards that can be used with standard x86-based COTS (Commercial Off the Shelf) servers from companies like Dell, HPE, Lenovo, Cisco and others. Importantly, Nokia emphasized their increasing focus as a software provider that can bring battle-tested, telecom-focused applications to a wide variety of different hardware environments. In the process, this step helps the company shift away from the increasingly difficult challenge of keeping their custom silicon ReefShark-based products on a performance par with the rapid advancements in other general-purpose AI accelerators (such as GPUs). In addition, it highlights the modern realities of software-based radio designs.

In fact, another key industry-wide development from MWC was the focus on software-defined radios. While the concept certainly isn’t anything new, the reality of how important it’s going to be as the industry transitions from 5G to 6G became very apparent at this year’s show. That software-based focus was also a critical part of Ericsson’s positioning and their key announcements. Like Nokia, they too have some new Nvidia GPU-based options leveraging the CUDA-based Aerial software stack, but the company also continues to believe that its custom silicon can and will play an important role in both the 5G and 6G worlds. In addition, Ericsson made significant new announcements with Intel about how that company’s new Xeon 6+ family of CPUs (based on the company’s cutting edge new 18A process technology) can help enable a software-upgradable path to 6G when telco customers choose to make that move.

In all its efforts, Ericsson focused on the pivotal role that AI plays across RAN, core network and edge applications, highlighting how the worlds of compute and traditional mobile networks are merging into a new type of entity with important implications (and big questions) for not just the tech industry but society overall. As with previous years, Ericsson also had a wide range of interesting demos at their booth, including some with the ISAC sensing capabilities expected for 6G, as well as how AI-based tools can be used for increasingly sophisticated network automation.

Several telcos also started discussions around the potential role that 6G could play in their environments. T-Mobile and its German counterpart Deutsche Telekom, for example, highlighted the work they’re starting to do in enabling AI applications on their network with the debut of a new 6G Innovation Hub. According to the two companies, their efforts will focus on “the evolution of connectivity, sensing and compute to support the next generation of Physical AI applications.” T-Mo also made a joint announcement with Ericsson and Nvidia on how they’re leveraging GPU-accelerated AI RAN capabilities to improve the performance and efficiency of their networks and with Qualcomm to discuss how they’re working together to make the first 6G installations real starting in 2029.

When it comes to any telco, the one big question mark hanging over all of them in regards to 6G and AI is business models. Unfortunately, most all of the new revenue opportunities that 5G was supposed to bring via a more intelligent network have yet to materialize and there are legitimate concerns that the same types of problems could occur with 6G. Plus, the reality is that many telcos are paying back the huge investments they made to upgrade their infrastructure to 5G and very few have even made the transition to 5G SA (Stand Alone). As a result, the willingness (and ability) to adopt 6G could be limited for some time. The bottom line is that telco providers have to figure out ways to create and successfully charge for new AI-powered services or the industry could be stuck in its more utility-type role for some time to come.

Of course, because it’s still very early days—after all, the official definitions on the specifications for 6G are barely getting started—there is a fair bit of room for interpretation and various paths that the evolution to 6G could still take. Plus, to be quite honest, on many levels it still feels like the industry needs several more years to get 5G right before any serious discussions on 6G occur.

At the same time, there seemed to be more people at this year’s show than ever before who had seemingly given up on 5G and 5G Advanced ever reaching the full potential for which we were promised. Comments about “every other G” being the impactful one—implying that 5G wasn’t going to be as important as 4G was but 6G would be—were made by several people I interacted with. Even still, progress is being made on the 5G front and there were some important announcements on those advancements also made at the show. The new Live Translation feature and other voice-based capabilities that T-Mobile recently unveiled, for example, are solid examples of the “intelligent network” capabilities that 5G was supposed to bring us.

The net-net is that the telecom industry and its suppliers seem to be at that uncertain stage in the middle of a major technology transition where you find more people either looking forward or backward than focusing on the realities of where we currently are. Nevertheless, there is no question that AI is going to be the critical cog in moving the telecom industry ahead, but lots of uncertainties remain on exactly how, where and who are best positioned to drive that AI development. If MWC 2026 made one thing clear, it is this: 6G has moved from a speculative future concept to a strategic planning framework for the next wave of AI-enabled networks.

How it ultimately evolves remains to be seen, but there’s no question that it’s going to be a fascinating process to watch.

Here’s a link to the original column: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mwc-highlights-promise-challenges-6g-bob-o-donnell-z6mfc

Bob O’Donnell is the president and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research, LLC a market research firm that provides strategic consulting and market research services to the technology industry and professional financial community. You can follow him on LinkedIn at Bob O’Donnell or on Twitter @bobodtech.