Telia and Ericsson Start Pre-Standard 6G Field Trials in Sweden

Telia and Ericsson have started 6G field trials in Sweden, testing Ericsson’s pre-standard 6G equipment in the upper 6 GHz band. This is a trial, not a 6G launch: Telia says it expects commercial 6G roll-out around 2030-2032, and the equipment is built ahead of the industry’s final 6G standards.

The announcement came with an over-the-air demonstration at the Ericsson Studio in Stockholm on 2 November, attended by Telia chief executive Patrik Hofbauer and Ericsson chief executive Per Narvinger, and the companies signed a memorandum of understanding on 6G, according to Ericsson. Both companies call it one of the Nordic region’s first such trials.

What the 6G field trials will test

In Telia’s release, the company says experts from both firms are evaluating 6G coverage, signal performance, uplink capacity, reliability and latency. The aim is to work out how 6G networks should be designed and deployed. Neither company has named the trial sites, said how long the trials will run or published any measurements.

Ericsson says the demonstration in Stockholm showed the upper 6 GHz band’s potential for wider channels, high-capacity connections and stronger uplink performance for AI applications and real-time video. Uplink is the traffic sent from a phone or other device back to the network, such as live video.

The work sits under a broader roadmap. The memorandum, called “Ericsson and Telia Collaborate on 6G in Sweden”, commits the pair to trials and demonstrations, work on security, resilience, coverage and energy efficiency, and joint input on standards, skills and spectrum policy. It is a statement of intent; the companies disclosed no budget.

“Our investments in robust, secure and comprehensive 5G networks serve as a natural stepping-stone towards the next generation of connectivity: 6G,” said Anders Olsson, head of Telia Sweden. Patrick Johansson, Ericsson’s head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: “Sweden and the Nordic region have a proud tradition of being early adopters of mobility. Today’s announcement indicates our companies’ intention to continue that tradition.”

Spectrum, security and a drone-tracking demo

Telia says the two companies will assess how much spectrum 6G will need, including the 6 GHz and 600 MHz bands, to meet expected capacity and coverage needs. Higher bands such as 6 GHz carry more data over shorter distances, while low bands such as 600 MHz reach further and get through walls more easily, so operators typically want both.

Telia also says it intends to bring together stakeholders to help define a national 6G security architecture for Sweden, with cybersecurity and resilience built in from the start.

The second demonstration in Stockholm used Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC), in which a mobile network also acts as a sensor. Ericsson says the system, built on modified 5G radios, can detect and track several drones in real-world conditions and report each one’s location, speed and height in real time. Drones are also becoming users of mobile spectrum in their own right: in the US, regulators recently opened part of the 800 MHz cellular band to drones.

Pre-standard trials let operators shape 6G before it is fixed

Trials like this one are less about speed records than about influence. 6G standards are still being written, and operators and vendors that test early can feed what they learn into those standards and into national spectrum decisions. That is why the Telia release puts spectrum and security alongside the radio tests.

Ericsson is running similar work elsewhere. In October, Verizon and Ericsson said they had made a pre-standard 6G field call in the 7 GHz band in California, which they also described as a proof of concept rather than a service. Ericsson has also been testing AI inside today’s networks, as in its AI beamforming trial with T-Mobile in New York. Ericsson says the path to 6G will build on 5G rather than start from scratch.

For Sweden, the plan links the trials to existing test programmes, including NorthStar and Digital Arena Sweden, so that businesses, researchers and public bodies can try 6G uses early. The pair have a long record together: Ericsson says they launched Sweden’s first 3G network in 2004 and the world’s first commercial 4G network, in Stockholm, in 2009.

There is still a long way to go. Customers will not get 6G phones or plans from these trials, the companies have shared no performance data, and the timeline depends on standards and spectrum decisions that are not yet made.

Sources

• Telia Company (Cision): “Telia and Ericsson launch 6G field trials in Sweden”, 2 November 2026
• Ericsson: “Telia Sweden and Ericsson collaborate on the path to 6G”, 2 November 2026

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