- AWS, Cisco, Intel, Keysight, MediaTek, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks, Rohde & Schwarz and Viavi are joining Verizon’s 6G Innovation Forum
- Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio says Verizon wants 6G to start with the use cases – not just faster speeds and bigger pipes
- Tenorio argues 5G was too technology-first – and that 6G needs to be built around problems the industry actually wants to solve
Verizon today announced the formal expansion of the Verizon 6G Innovation Forum (6GIF) with the addition of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Intel, Keysight Technologies, MediaTek, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks, Rohde & Schwarz and Viavi Solutions.
These companies are joining Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, Meta and Qualcomm Technologies in their quest to develop next-generation wireless architectures that drive both innovation and monetization.
“This is not about being first,” Verizon Chief Technology Officer Yago Tenorio told Fierce. “It’s about creating 6G from the bottom up, starting from a use case, which was lacking in 5G.”
Glasses that talk
Tenorio described some pretty demo cool use cases that Verizon already conducted with Meta, Samsung and Qualcomm that highlight AI and Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), a technology that’s already gaining some 5G steam leading up to 6G.
First up: the Meta Ray-Ban glasses that Verizon is prototyping in the hopes of making money down the line.
The prototype involves the glasses, SportsDataIO real-time statistics and GPUs in Verizon’s edge infrastructure to create a conversation between the person who’s wearing the glasses and … the glasses. Or, rather, the technology behind the glasses.
The glasses are equipped with cameras and microphones. The person wearing the glasses can ask about players, rules, predictions, historical events – whatever – and get answers back in real time while they're watching a game in the stadium or at home.
Fierce wondered if this is something that would be welcome at a real sporting event. Why not just watch the game? Do these glasses make people look cool or something?
Tenorio said they look like conventional Wayfarer Ray-Bans. “I like them a lot. I use them all the time,” he said.
And for better or worse, it’s not the same as having a human sitting next to you in the stadium and providing a play by play.
“Unlike your brother-in-law, they’re a real expert, not one who pretends to be an expert,” he quipped.
Verizon taps Samsung, AI-RAN
OK, onto the other demos.
During a live “major international soccer celebration in Dallas” – Tenorio didn’t call out the FIFA World Cup by name but you can use your own inferencing skills to figure it out – Samsung provided its AI-RAN and edge AI platform, as well as six Samsung Galaxy smartphones.
Basically, organizers of the premiere soccer event were able to use the technology to monitor spectator traffic in real-time, allowing them to streamline gate operations, reduce concession line wait times and proactively address overcrowding risks, according to Verizon.
Not only does that benefit the event organizers, but it’s also useful for attendees who would rather spend their time watching the action on the field rather than waiting in line. In that sense, it’s a use case that will appeal to businesses as well as consumers, Tenorio said.
The demo is being described as “the industry’s first AI-powered ISAC trial on a virtualized RAN (vRAN)” using a single 5G base station and 40 MHz of CBRS spectrum.
Qualcomm keeps drones in line
In a separate event at Qualcomm’s San Diego campus, Verizon conducted a drone and vehicle safety tracking demo that tested the network’s ability to seamlessly multitask using millimeter wave spectrum.
Specifically, they used 100-400 megahertz of millimeter wave spectrum and four synchronized Transmission and Reception Points (TRPs) to map and track the position and velocity of an airborne target and moving ground vehicles.
According to Verizon, the network maintained radar-like tracking of the drone while providing uninterrupted high-speed 5G Standalone (SA) mobile communications to a phone user on the ground.
It highlighted 6G’s potential to provide “the foundational, secure tracking infrastructure require for future autonomous drone safety,” the carrier said.
6G will not be like 5G
New generations of wireless technology tend to come around every 10 years, whether the entire world wants them or not. For a lot of that time during each iteration, the industry has spent half of a decade asking: What is the killer application?
Even in 4G, which enabled video streaming, the people developing the technology didn’t have that use case in mind. That came later.
Similar to previous technologies, 5G was specified from the top down as something that would be more capable and faster and the industry was expected to figure out what to do with those capabilities.
At this point in the 6G cycle, you can probably assume the technology will be faster and more capable than the previous version.
“But it’s probably time that the industry figures out the use case before you figure out the technology,” Tenorio said. “The other way around has proven difficult.”
This time, the industry needs to think about the problems 6G is trying to solve and create the technology with that in mind, he said. That will be top of mind as Verizon gears up to showcase 6G at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“We have the opportunity to change the standard and make it what we want it to be. It’s the right time with the standard and the technology to make sure that 6G is what we need it to be,” he said.
Read more stories about Verizon and 5G/6G on Fierce Network
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