Patrick Johansson, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Ericsson, and Anders Olsson, Head of Telia Sweden, were among the senior executives from both companies who attended the event.
With the growing capabilities of technologies such as AI already being enabled by 5G, the path to 6G – and the increased capabilities and network demands of that era – will be a mix of evolution and innovation, building on 5G success and strengths.
To mark the launch, the partners conducted one of the Nordic region’s first over-the-air demonstrations of pre-standard 6G technology in the upper 6 GHz frequency band – spectrum that will be widely utilised in the 6G era.
The companies signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) – called ‘Ericsson and Telia Collaborate on 6G in Sweden’ – to “build on the continued evolution of 5G, including 5G Standalone, 5G Advanced, network APIs and AI-based automation.”
Addressing an audience of enterprise, academic, startup and government stakeholders, the CEOs said that under the MoU, the companies will:
- Conduct trials and demonstrations of relevant 6G capabilities and use cases.
- Explore security, resilience, coverage, performance and energy efficiency solutions.
- Work with ecosystem partners including industry, academia, startups and public-sector stakeholders.
- Contribute to discussions on standards, skills, test environments, spectrum and other policy/market conditions.
- Where relevant, support collaboration through national test and innovation environments, including Digital Arena Sweden.
Anders Olsson, Head of Telia Sweden says: “Our investments in robust, secure and comprehensive 5G networks serve as a natural stepping-stone towards the next generation of connectivity: 6G. We are now bringing together industry, academia and the public sector to ensure Sweden takes a leading role in 6G development, based on the needs of society and businesses, and to contribute to a more secure and competitive Sweden.”
Patrick Johansson, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa, Ericsson, says: “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. We look forward to working closely with Telia on the path to 6G.”
Today’s path to 6G announcement builds on a long history of Ericsson-Telia partnership in mobility.
The demo
Event attendees saw an early over-the-air demonstration of pre-standard 6G technology in the upper 6 GHz band, illustrating the spectrum’s potential to support wider channels, high-capacity connectivity and stronger uplink performance for future AI-enabled applications and real-time video.
A separate Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) demonstration showed how a network can detect and track a drone. Using modified 5G radios, the system is capable of detecting and tracking multiple drones in real-world scenarios. The network generated real-time target metrics, including location, velocity and elevation. The system will support continued development and testing of pre-standard 6G capabilities.
More about Ericsson and Telia
The partners launched one of the world’s first fully automatic mobile networks (NMT) in 1981. They partnered again on the introduction of GSM in 1991, the launch of Sweden’s first 3G network in 2004, the deployment in Stockholm of the world’s first commercial 4G network in 2009, and Sweden’s first large scale public 5G network in 2020.
