6G News and Announcements from MWC 2025

6G wasn’t as prominent at MWC 2025 as I had anticipated, but it still made a notable appearance. With limited time, I could only explore a few stands and speak to a handful of people and companies. Here’s a snapshot of what I discovered.

Samsung’s 6G Vision

Samsung had plenty to share about 6G at MWC 2025. In February, they released a whitepaper, this was followed-up by signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Japanese operator KDDI during MWC. According to the announcement, this collaboration will focus on researching AI-driven solutions to optimise the design and operation of Distributed MIMO (D-MIMO) systems—aiming to achieve higher transmission speeds at the user level and increase network-wide capacity.

Samsung also showcased its advanced Massive MIMO radios (shown above), featuring a 128TR model operating in the 6.9–7.3 GHz band and a 256TR model in the 12.75–13.25 GHz band. With their virtualised RAN (vRAN) solutions already proving robust for 5G, Samsung is confident that a fully software-implemented 6G network is within reach, requiring only the radios for transmitting and receiving signals.

KT’s Vision for Future Networks

The South Korean operator KT showcased its differentiated future network technologies, including 6G, AI networks, and quantum communications, at its 'K-Lab' exhibit. This space highlighted KT’s network vision and the core technologies driving its 6G ambitions. The next-generation network concepts on display included advancements in 6G, AI-powered network management, disaster recovery solutions, and quantum communication technologies.

KT’s approach to 6G focuses on evolving infrastructure through the integration of satellites, AI, and cloud technologies. The goal is to deliver enhanced customer value by improving transmission speeds, reducing latency, strengthening network survivability, and expanding coverage beyond current capabilities.

You can read more about KT's presence here.

MediaTek’s Vision: Shaping the Future of 6G and Next-Gen Connectivity

MediaTek had a few things with 6G which is nicely summarised in the X post below:

More info on MediaTek's MWC page here.

China Mobile’s 6G Exploration

China Mobile introduced its 6G experimental platform, aptly named "6G EXPLORE"—an acronym for EXperimental PLatform for Original REsearch of Comm-Sens-Compute-AI Integration. This platform aims to advance research in the integration of communications, sensing, computing, and AI within future 6G networks.

Additionally, China Mobile showcased its 6G Open & Cloud-native Prototype in the Sub-7GHz band. This prototype features 1,024 antenna elements, 128 transmit-receive (TR) units, and operates with a 400 MHz bandwidth centred at 6.6 GHz—highlighting advancements in massive MIMO and cloud-native architecture for 6G.

Ericsson’s Prominent 6G Showcase

Ericsson featured one of the most prominent 6G displays at MWC 2025. A key highlight was a demo showcasing the potential of 6G using photonics technology as explained in the X post below:

Additionally, Ericsson collaborated with Keysight to establish a pre-6G radio access test setup, featuring an Ericsson base station and Keysight’s test user equipment (UE) operating in the centimetre Wave (cmWave) frequency band. This new testbed provides a controlled lab environment to explore innovative physical layer and protocol features, advancing 6G development in the cmWave spectrum.

Ericsson also announced strategic MoUs—one with Türk Telekom for 6G collaboration and another with Chunghwa Telecom to accelerate 5G Advanced and set the stage for 6G evolution. Back in Nov. 2024, Ericsson had signed an MoU with e& UAE for 6G collaboration.

More 6G Visions and Demos

Beyond the major showcases, several other companies contributed to the 6G conversation at MWC 2025. Anritsu, NICT Japan, Qualcomm, China Unicom, NTT Docomo, and ZTE presented their visions and demos, highlighting advancements and research efforts shaping the future of 6G.

YO-RAN’s Decentralized Distributed Massive MIMO (DD-mMIMO)

YO-RAN (Yorkshire Open Radio Access Networks) showcased its Decentralized Distributed Massive MIMO solution, also known as Cell-free Massive MIMO. This approach aims to enhance network performance by eliminating the concept of traditional cell boundaries, enabling more seamless and efficient connectivity.

You can read more about their presence at MWC 2025 here.

Also check out this article by TMN: Searching for 6G at MWC which complements with blog post nicely.

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