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Qualcomm execs say 6G will pave a path to better connectivity and sensing capabilities, but it will also intersect directly with AI use cases and a new wave of AI-native devices. 'In the AI era, people are going to carry multiple, personal AI devices beyond the smartphone,' says Qualcomm's Hemanth Sampath.
At its "6G Leadership Day" last week in San Diego, Qualcomm execs spent a good part of it extolling the virtues of the coming mobile standard and all the expected benefits it will bring to the company and others in the global mobile arena.
Much of that discussion centered on what Qualcomm views as 6G's key pillars: connectivity, sensing and support for AI, including the plan for 6G to be an "AI-native" network. [Editor's note: For a different take on the event and what's in store for 6G, check out this episode of the "Signal Strength" podcast with Gabriel Brown, Omdia's senior principal analyst, mobile networks].
Qualcomm's Durga Malladi (left) is joined by CTIA's Ajit Pai at Qualcomm's '6G Leadership Day' in San Diego on Wednesday, August 26. (Source: Jeff Baumgartner/Light Reading)
6G will heavily rely on AI algorithms and technologies to make wireless communications better, and it will be used to support a new wave of AI-capable devices that extend well beyond the smartphone, Durga Malladi, EVP and GM of technology planning, edge solutions and data center for Qualcomm, explained in his opening remarks.
AI and wireless are "two different things that have been marching towards each other. … The technologies are evolving and will feed off of each other," he said.
And in the center of it all will be the AI agent, which will speak to other AI-enabled devices in a sort of multi-modal, hub-and-spoke approach that will tap into multiple apps at the same time with the proper permissions and credentials. "AI is becoming the center of action and you [will] build the devices around it and the protocols around it, not the other way around," said Malladi.
John Smee, SVP of engineering and wireless R&D at Qualcomm, noted that while agentic AI "will be incredibly important in the 6G era," it will also cross into physical AI and reach from the network to the edge to the device. "We'll use AI to help design a better 6G," he said.
Throughout the day, Malladi, Smee and others pointed to some of the new AI-native devices that will work with 6G, including AI-powered "pucks," glasses, pins and other types of advanced, connected wearables.
"We believe that, in the AI era, people are going to carry multiple, personal AI devices beyond the smartphone," said Qualcomm VP of Engineering Hemanth Sampath.
Agentic AI is expected to change the shape of network traffic as agents use more data and require longer sessions to complete tasks than those that would be performed by people. Cisco, for example, predicts that AI-related traffic will triple within the next three years, and possibly more.
In that sense, AI is poised to become a "new UI," or user interface, that is integrated into those devices along with "context-aware agents," Sampath explained.
That, in turn, will drive a lot more traffic overall but particularly in the upstream direction.
If people use those devices to livestream their day-to-day activities (a use case referred to as "see what I see"), it will be important for 6G to support channel widths up to 400MHz, up from the 100MHz supported by 5G systems, Sampath added. He said 50 gigabytes of data per month is "modest" with respect to what's ahead, suggesting that a personal assistant could use up about 45GB per month, with 50% of it in the uplink. He reckons that current 5G systems will be capable of supporting a mere five users on a given cell when these AI-driven trends turn to reality.
"That's not enough," Sampath said, noting that the number could easily jump to 20-plus users per cell with the additional spectrum and capacity that will be supported by 6G.
And while this speaks to the connectivity enhancements that are in store for 6G, merely going beyond the speeds that 5G delivers today won't be enough, execs argued.
"Connectivity is something that one expects," Malladi said. But if 6G is just a more efficient bit pipe, "we have failed," he added.
No matter the "G," access to spectrum is critical. And 6G plus AI will require more of it, said CTIA President and CEO Ajit Pai, who is a former FCC chairman.
6G will run a "different kind of traffic entirely," he said during a keynote.
Pai said the coming upper C-band auction, which will help to create a 440MHz-wide block of contiguous spectrum when combined with the lower C-band, is a good start but not the end.
"To meet consumer and AI demand, we're going to need a lot more spectrum," Pai said. "And that takes time. Time to study the bands, time to set the rules to give incumbents the ability to be ready, time to design equipment, time to raise capital, time to build infrastructure. … Spectrum policy, in short, takes years, not months."
Congress has provided a roadmap for that spectrum, he noted. Meanwhile, the FCC is already planning an auction in the 2.7GHz band for 2028, and in two more bands that have not been formally identified.
Pai noted that government review of the 7GHz band is nearing completion, with at least 270MHz of spectrum as the starting point.
"We need to work hard to get these 6G-ready bands auctioned by 2028 – both 2.7GHz and 7GHz," Pai said.
However, Pai is especially keen on the potential in the 4GHz band, believing it "could be one of the most consequential for America's 6G future." That band is considered midband spectrum, which provides a good balance of coverage and capacity.
NTIA has cleared a technical panel to enable federal agencies to receive funding to do a technical analysis to make portions of the 2.7GHz band available for full power commercial use. NTIA is also studying the 4.4GHz-4.94GHz band for reallocation.
"Ultimately, it's the kind of spectrum opportunity that doesn't come around very often. We need to seize it," Pai said.
In a separate discussion, Smee said that Qualcomm is "really focused on improving uplink cellular performance as part of 6G." While 5G brought a lot of new capacity, 6G will build on that foundation, improving coverage and performance as new bands are unlocked, he explained.
6G standards are expected to be finalized in 2029, and Qualcomm is targeting that timeframe for initial commercialization of 6G technologies and products. But the standards process hasn't been without controversy, with both the US and China seeking to influence 6G technologies and standards.
During the event, Qualcomm execs were asked to weigh in on the role that the Chinese market, including its suppliers and operators, will play in 6G. Noting that Qualcomm has an R&D team in China, Smee said he sees China's role as "incredibly important."
"There's a lot of technology evolution in China, so Qualcomm is strongly engaged in that ecosystem, understanding the priorities, and looking at the telco edge to the device side," he explained.
Smee said it is likewise important for there to be a global standard as the focus pivots to the 3GPP's Release 21, which will be the first 6G specification. "We have a lot of standardization in front of us," he said.
Qualcomm's leadership doesn't expect fragmentation of the standards, given the importance of having a platform that supports global roaming. While there are always disagreements to be ironed out, talk of geopolitical arguments centered on 6G are "overblown," said Lorenzo Casaccia, the company's VP of technical standards.
"We are very confident there's going to be a global standard for 6G," Casaccia said. "There's enough incentive to have global roaming and have a global system from all parts of the geopolitical landscape, because people move."
6G will also impact Qualcomm's licensing and patent technology business, which today drives about $5.5 billion in annual revenues. Today, the company is mapping how that part of the business will change with 6G and its new devices and use cases, including those tied to advanced sensing, which is considered a pillar of 6G.
John Han, Qualcomm's EVP and GM of technology licensing, said he expects "some differences" in how Qualcomm licenses its intellectual property in the 6G era based on transitions to previous generations of mobile standards. Licensing for the handset-focused 4G standard was different than for 5G, which opened up opportunities in the automotive and fixed wireless access (FWA) segments, he explained.
Similarly, 6G will change licensing with the emergence of AI-driven smart glasses, other wearables and "always-listening" devices. Some analysts have questioned whether Qualcomm will be able to generate as much licensing revenue from AI pucks and other devices that will likely cost less than the latest, greatest smartphone.
Han isn't overly concerned, given the structure of Qualcomm's licensing business. He noted that it includes a royalty equal to 3.25% of the net selling price of certain 5G devices, subject to a per-unit cap. Qualcomm does not publicize the size of that cap, but Han said it has been hit before, and he expects licensing charges to adjust to the lower prices of future 6G devices.
"Our philosophy is that the selling price comes down to $100 to $150, then the use case is reflective of that selling price, and we'll charge less. That's another way of looking at it," he said.
Editor's note: Qualcomm covered Light Reading's travel and accommodation expenses for the 6G event it hosted with press and analysts.