Verizon and Ericsson Accelerate 6G Development with World’s First Outdoor 6G Field Call
- First 7 Ghz pre-standard 6G call completed at Verizon's Concord, California commercial site
- This field validation explores outdoor performance and outside-to-in indoor coverage
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) today announced a global first: successfully completing the first pre-standard 6G field call in the 7 GHz from a Verizon commercial network site in Concord, California. The Ericsson 6G proof-of-concept kit was fully deployed at the site, and 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.
“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,” says Yago Tenorio, Chief Technology Officer and SVP 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.”
“Today’s announcement is another validation of Verizon’s leadership on the path to 6G,” says Hannes Ekström, Head of Customer Unit Verizon at Ericsson. “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.”
Figure 1 : Location of base station (red pin); Location of small house on wheels (green pin) Figure 2 : Front view of small house on wheels
A field test built for real-world learning
The Ericsson 6G proof-of-concept equipment is installed at Verizon’s commercial site in Concord, California. The base station is installed separately in the site shelter, while the user equipment is in a small house on wheels – an approximately 12-by-8-foot enclosure that supports stationary outdoor and indoor radio configurations. It includes 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.
This achievement is not only an indoor penetration test: the confirmed field result is an outdoor call, while the broader proof-of-concept examines how 6G performance carries from open air into indoor spaces. Testing characterizes coverage, throughput, latency, stability and feature behavior 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.
Continuing the path to 6G
The milestone is a pre-standard proof-of-concept demonstration and is not a commercial 6G service launch. Verizon and Ericsson will continue analyzing field results and applying the learnings to future 6G research, testing, and deployment planning. Over time, 6G is expected 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. Pre-standard 6G refers to early stage 6G innovations that are being developed and tested before official standards are finalized.
NOTES TO EDITORS:
6G - Follow the journey to the next generation networks - Ericsson