5G has been on somewhat of a rollercoaster and is only now beginning to gain momentum with the number of connections surpassing 2 billion in 2024. Yet we are already seeing substantial activity on the next generation of telco networks which is 6G.
6G is the next-generation cellular technology, following 5G and 5G Advanced.
It will consist of:
- Higher frequencies than 5G – from around 6 gigahertz (GHz) of 5G into around 40 GHz in the millimeter-wave, with some anticipating 30-300 GHz and even from 300 GHz to 3 THz range
- Network speed: 6G speed is expected to be 50 times faster than 5G with 6G anticipated to reach rates of up to 1 Tbps compared to theoretical speeds of up to 20 Gbps per second in 5G.
- Enhanced reliability and wider network coverage.
- Lower latency – One of the goals of 6G is to support one microsecond latency communications. This is 1,000 times faster than 5G’s one millisecond latency.
- Network energy efficiency: The goal for 6G is to enhance network energy efficiency by a factor of 100
6G will embody connected intelligence, converging communications with AI. Some industry experts envision that it will not simply be an upgrade of 5G but will take the telecom industry to an entirely new level, bridging the divide between the physical and the digital worlds.
The industry is already witnessing much activity around 6G. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) finalized the IMT-2030 framework in 2023, releasing its new recommendations for 6G. This was followed in September 2024 by the 3GPP formally approving the first study item for 6G, signifying its move from high-level vision to use cases for 6G, with a projected completion date of 2030.
Aside from the standards organizations, many industry collaborations are joining forces to fast-track the future of communications. A Japanese consortium consisting of Docomo, NTT, NEC, and Fujitsu unveiled the first high-speed 6G prototype device at 100Gbps. Researchers at the University College of London set a new world record for transmitting data at 938 gigabytes per second (Gbps), or almost one terabyte – which is more than 9,000 times faster than the current 5G phone speed. Meanwhile, the IEEE established a working group for an Innovation Testbed to develop next-generation technologies for 6G.
Why should operators pay attention?
AI is everywhere and will speed ahead, placing huge responsibility on telco operators as they transition from communications providers to mission-critical entities. This means that the telecom network will be the power behind AI, AI agents, and artificial general intelligence itself.
It is also expected to put heavy pressure on the network itself to support growing data requirements. The network will need to remain reliable, sustainable, and able to handle any adversity. This is particularly crucial in natural or man-made disasters as part of mission-critical services for off-network coverage to be extended to public safety users.
In a 6G era, the demands on telecom operators will be immense. They will need networks with predictability, reliability and resiliency to handle any adversity as well as a “back-up plan” for real-time adaptation and recovery.
Next-generation intelligence assurance solutions like RADCOM will be instrumental in the 6G network and will provide unmatched visibility and performance across the hyperconnected AI-driven landscape. Like with 5G standalone networks, these solutions will play a critical part in the observability and adaptability of the networks, providing granular information into the entire network, from RAN to the core.
End-to-end visibility will be critical
6G is expected to shift towards network disaggregation, with non-terrestrial access and edge-cloud integration. Visibility across all domains will become paramount. RADCOM’s solutions bring together insights from multiple, different sources. Designed to sustain millions of connected devices, high-speed voice and data services, and changing conditions, it already offers a complete understanding of the network. This includes user analytics, location intelligence, usage patterns, service interactions, and more.
RADCOM’s architecture enables deployment at the edge, in the core, and across network slices, providing comprehensive, real-time analytics into data and control plane behavior.
Assurance solutions like RADCOM provide several advantages, including:
- Proactive, AI-augmented service assurance – combining probe-derived telemetry with AI/ML analytics to detect degradations, RADCOM’s platform predicts faults and recommends action enabling zero touch operations. This can be dynamically orchestrated to simulate user behavior, ensuring SLA compliance that will be critical to 6G applications like XR or remote surgery.
- Slice-aware, intent-driven monitoring – supporting slice-aware probing, enables monitoring of service-level performance within individual network slices. The intent-based assurance is aligned with customer-specific SLAs and dynamic service topologies.
- Enhanced quality of experience and application visibility – providing deep packet inspection (DPI) and layer-7 visibility, RADCOM provides an essential understanding of the quality of experience (QoE) of the user, all the way down to the application level used in 6G-based industrial IoT and autonomous systems.
- Cloud-native and interoperable architecture—RADCOM’s solution is containerized and cloud-native, enabling elastic scale-out at the edge in private, public, or hybrid environments. Ensuring API-driven integration with orchestrators, analytics platforms, and security layers, the solution aligns with the open architecture goals of 6G.
Conclusion
In the age of 6G and pervasive AI, assurance solutions will be deeply critical to ensuring network interoperability and connectivity. The momentum for improved services has already started with the push for 5G. This will continue to grow with the escalation of agentic AI and the next stage, artificial superintelligence. It is not too early to start building trust and resilience into the network with next-generation intelligent assurance solutions like RADCOM that can scale to the demands with technology-centric solutions.
