Nokia and Ericsson to develop a 6G network project for the European Union

Nokia will lead Hexa-X project to develop and launch a new generation of 6G mobile networks in the European Union. The project also will participate Ericsson AB, mobile operators Orange SA and Telefonica SA, Intel, Siemens and the universities of Oulu and Pisa.

The project starts on January 1st. It will develop 6G use cases and fundamental technologies for these networks.

The Hexa-X will be funded by the EU through the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Nokia believes the commercial launch of 6G communication systems will begin by 2030.

The technology is expected to help provide advanced connectivity, including real-time wireless remote access to artificial intelligence.

In its Outlook for 6G research paper, Ericsson identified four key factors that will emerge in the so-called “2030 era” that the project will focus on: system reliability, resilience through mobile efficiency, accelerated automation and digitalization, and limitless connectivity. The company will, in particular, develop a working package of architectural tools for 6G.

Industry Research, Nokia Bell Labs, is a pioneer in many fundamental technological innovations for the development of 5G standards. These include Massive MIMO, mmWave access, coding and 5G radio stack design, which has enabled the rollout of 3GPP Release 15. Nokia Bell Labs is also developing support tools for the upcoming 3GPP Release 16 and 17 releases, which are key to the digital transformation of industrial verticals such as 5G New Radio (NR) on unlicensed spectrum bands and NR-Light to support the massive Internet of Things.

There is already a similar project in the USA. It is being developed by Next G Alliance and O-RAN Alliance. 6G Networking Team also financed by the Chinese authorities.

In the meantime, the world is only deploying 5G networks. In total, these services are offered by about a hundred operators.