• Early 6G work increasingly assumes coexistence with 5G in existing spectrum and greater reuse of installed radio infrastructure
  • Reuse could lower the cost of migration but reduce the number of hardware replacement cycles that naturally give operators an opportunity to change suppliers

The fact

The emerging 6G architecture is being designed to reuse more of the infrastructure already deployed for 5G rather than require a complete network replacement. Ericsson expects 6G to share existing 5G spectrum through multi-RAT spectrum sharing, while Nokia is marketing an AI-RAN platform with a software upgrade path to 6G that can operate with existing Nokia and O-RAN-compliant radio units.

Reuse will not be universal. Ericsson also expects additional spectrum to be introduced for 6G, including centimetric bands, and some future capacity requirements will need new radio equipment. The 3GPP standard itself is still being developed, with Release 21 expected to produce the first normative 6G specifications.

Samsung has separately argued that existing OFDM-based radio technology can evolve to support sensing rather than requiring an entirely new waveform, another example of the industry's preference for evolutionary rather than wholesale architectural change.

The assessment

The important change is not that 6G will simply run on an unchanged 5G network. It is that the move between generations may no longer force operators to replace large parts of the radio estate at the same time.

That can reduce migration costs and allow spectrum, sites and compatible radios to remain useful for longer. It also changes procurement. A generational upgrade used to create a natural point at which an operator could reconsider its radio supplier. If some 6G functions arrive through software and selective equipment upgrades, those purchasing decisions become spread across several smaller investment cycles instead.

For BTW readers, supplier competition may therefore depend less on a single 6G replacement programme and more on decisions being made during 5G Advanced upgrades today. Radio compatibility, open interfaces and the ability to introduce software or equipment from another supplier will determine how much choice operators retain when 6G becomes deployable.

What to watch

Watch 3GPP Release 21 decisions on spectrum sharing, radio interfaces and 5G coexistence, alongside operator requirements for reusing existing equipment. Vendor claims of software-upgradeable radios will need to be matched by actual operator deployments. New spectrum allocations will also show which parts of 6G can reuse current infrastructure and where fresh hardware becomes unavoidable.