At a glance

• Growing 6G ecosystem: Nine new technology industry leaders have joined the Verizon 6G Innovation Forum (6GIF)—including AWS, NVIDIA, Intel, and Cisco—bolstering collaboration on cloud services, AI, security, and independent testing.
• Successful real-world trials: Verizon completed groundbreaking field trials for Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), demonstrating real-time crowd density detection and drone and vehicle safety tracking using network-native sensing.
• AI-powered fan experiences: A new research prototype for an AI Sports Companion showcased how future edge networks and AI-enabled wearables can provide immersive, real-time game statistics and more hands-free.

NEW YORK, N.Y.—Verizon today announced a major acceleration in the development of next-generation wireless architectures with the formal expansion of the Verizon 6G Innovation Forum (6GIF). Nine industry heavyweights—Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Intel, Keysight Technologies, MediaTek, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks, Rohde & Schwarz and VIAVI Solutions—have officially joined the forum, launched last year to establish an open, diversified, and resilient 6G ecosystem and develop foundational 6G technologies.

“By expanding our Innovation Forum and refining live edge-AI trials today, we are ensuring the AI-native 6G network is built from day one to scale 5G Advanced capabilities and translate these next-generation technologies into meaningful, real-world experiences for our customers”, said Yago Tenorio, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Technology Development at Verizon. “With 6G, our collaborative objective is fundamentally bottom-up and use-case-driven. We are designing the next generation of connectivity with a specific target already in mind: enabling and scaling AI workloads and the massive AI ecosystem—particularly the emerging class of AI-enabled wearables like untethered smart glasses, as well as pioneering Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) technologies.”

The Verizon 6G Innovation Forum which includes founding members Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, Meta, and Qualcomm Technologies focuses on unlocking the full potential of 6G by trialing new use cases, testing new spectrum bands and bandwidth, and ensuring global alignment with global standards bodies like the 3GPP. The arrival of the nine new members injects critical multi-disciplinary capabilities across cloud services, advanced silicon and accelerated computing, independent automated test emulation, network security and immersive device graphics simulation.
 

Pioneering real-world ISAC trials with founding partners

To move 6G from theoretical discussion into practical reality, Verizon highlighted recent successful field trials with founding members Samsung and Qualcomm targeting Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) use cases. ISAC essentially transforms the cellular network into a massive, distributed radar-like sensor without the need for physical cameras. Using 5G Advanced capabilities, the companies explored how ISAC could support public safety, environmental awareness and event management, creating a path to evolve these capabilities with 6G.

• Crowd density detection demo with Samsung: Staged live at a major international soccer celebration in Dallas, Texas, this milestone represented the industry’s first AI-powered ISAC trial on a virtualized Radio Access Network (vRAN) for crowd detection. Using a single 5G base station and 40MHz of CBRS spectrum, the network tracked the raw radio variations from six localized Samsung Galaxy smartphones. Samsung’s AI RAN and edge AI platform, Network in a Server (NIS) then analyzed these ambient wireless signal changes to generate real-time crowd-density heatmaps on commercial phones and a tablet. The trial validated how network-native sensing can enable real-time intelligence for large-scale events, which could allow event organizers to monitor spectator flows in real-time, streamline gate operations, reduce concession line wait times, and proactively address overcrowding risks. ^¹ 
• Drone and vehicle safety tracking demo with Qualcomm: Conducted at Qualcomm’s San Diego campus, this trial demonstrated the network’s ability to seamlessly multitask. Utilizing 100 to 400MHz of millimeter-wave spectrum and four synchronized Transmission and Reception Points (TRPs), the system successfully mapped and tracked the position and velocity of an airborne target and moving ground vehicles. Crucially, the network maintained radar-like tracking of the drone while simultaneously providing uninterrupted, high-speed 5G Standalone (SA) mobile communications to a phone user on the ground. This highlights 6G’s potential to provide the foundational, secure tracking infrastructure required for future autonomous drone safety.

Trialing an AI sports companion application

Further driving its strategy of building infrastructure around the applications of tomorrow, Verizon showcased a prototype of an AI Sports Companion application. Next-generation, AI-native devices and wearables like smart glasses will demand ultra-low latency and a more balanced uplink-downlink model as the glasses will generate as much uplink data as downloading content.

Powered directly by the Verizon Edge Network, this research prototype application showed how that architectural shift could translate into a premium fan experience. Wearing Meta AI glasses, users could enjoy a game in a stadium or at home completely hands-free without looking down at a phone. Utilizing an ultra-fast edge network with a locally optimized Small Language Model (SLM), a NVIDIA DGX Spark and statistics from SportsDataIO, the application allowed users to verbally ask for real-time player statistics, live score interpretations, or game-winning probabilities, receiving instant, spoken answers right in their ear. The prototype was designed to explore how future technology could eliminate the friction of juggling multiple apps and keep fans immersed in the game while providing deep, real-time insights.

The path to 6G deployment

Looking forward, Verizon 6GIF members will continue to share learnings from future ecosystem demonstrations involving ISAC, digital twins, robotics, AI and advanced wearables. Verizon views the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles as the ultimate interim proving ground on the road to commercial 6G deployment.

With Verizon’s dedicated 6G Lab already established directly in Los Angeles, the host city will serve as a live, real-world stage to stress-test the massive capacity demands and early use cases of the AI-native era, delivering practical user experiences that prove and validate the next generation of wireless technology.

Footnotes: 

• 1 The crowd sensing demo measures crowd density which is the number of people in a given area, at any given time. Individual users or objects are not identified. No information is obtained about the identity of the individuals.