- 6G is currently in the study phase as 3GPP considers how to keep pace with fast-moving AI
- Nokia’s Peter Merz says flexibility is key, favoring frameworks and interoperable interfaces over specific models
- Debate over 6G’s scope remains as the industry figures out what’s in and what’s out
How do you bake AI into the 6G standard when the typical telco development cycle takes about 10 years and the AI industry is moving at warp speed?
The answer, it seems, is not that easy.
It’s one of the topics top of mind for Nokia standards guru Peter Merz. His formal title is head of Standardization at Nokia, where he’s worked for nearly 20 years.
2025 marked a big turning point for 6G in the sense that it officially moved to the study phase at 3GPP, the umbrella standardization group for mobile technologies. 6G is expected to be in this phase for the next 12 to 18 months.
That means they’re looking at various options, with anything and everything on the table at this point. “Everyone is bringing ideas to the discussion,” he said.
For sure, AI figures prominently. Merz spoke with Fierce before Nokia unveiled its big AI strategy at its Capital Markets Day in November.
Keeping pace with AI
He acknowledged that AI is evolving at an unprecedented pace and any standardization effort needs to reflect that.
“For 3GPP, the best approach is to build flexibility into the 6G standard – this means defining frameworks and interoperable interfaces e.g. using Model Context Protocol (MCP) and alike that allow AI models and algorithms to be updated without requiring a full standards revision,” he said.
In practice, that could include modular architectures, clear interoperability and testability guidelines and lifecycle management for AI components. “Collaboration with the broader AI ecosystem is also critical to ensure the standard remains relevant as AI capabilities advance,” he said.
He stressed that it’s a framework that the standards bodies like 3GPP are talking about putting into place rather than specifying any particular models.
“What we specify is the framework – how you can transport information from A to B, for example,” he told Fierce. “I think that is important because sometimes people think that we’ll try to specify too many things.”
The goal is to specify for interoperability, which is obviously important in the telecom world. As Merz pointed out in a blog with colleague Karina Palyutina, the telecom industry – unlike the electrical industry – addressed the global standards issue from the get go. Believe it or not, it dates all the way back to the telegraph, when the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) was established in 1865 to solve the problem of interoperability between national telegraph systems.
Avoiding 5G’s pitfalls
One thing the standards community doesn’t want to repeat is what happened with 5G, where operators asked for a non-standalone (NSA) version they could deploy before going to the full (non-LTE dependent) standalone (SA) version. The SA version is where the real benefits of 5G kick in, with the ability to do network slicing, for example.
“What we want to have is a clean, standalone radio network,” he said. “We would see an evolution of the core network because the standalone deployments are happening as we speak.”
The debate goes on
Obviously, whatever constitutes 6G remains up for debate as the 3GPP continues its study sessions.
Certainly, groups like the NGMN – Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance are advocating for 6G to be more about software upgrades than wholesale infrastructure changes. NGMN, which represents mobile network operators worldwide, put out a position statement in 2023 saying they don’t want 6G to force a complete hardware refresh.
“We're completely open to new innovation that helps us deliver better stuff for customers and reduces the total cost of ownership, but we don't want to be dragged into a forced hardware refresh simply to say we have a new G,” NGMN board member Luke Ibbetson, head of Group R&D at Vodafone, told Fierce last summer. “We're not against a new radio, but that new radio has to be something in which we would see value in investing in.”
For now, 6G remains a work in progress. But it’s a pretty safe bet that the debate will carry forward, with AI and 6G guaranteed to be the big buzzwords at Mobile World Congress 2026.