Building the 6G standard: What 3GPP’s June 2026 plenary decisions mean for device makers

What you should know:

• The 6G foundation is set, and it builds directly on 5G. Innovation is being applied in a measured way, focused on targeted enhancements where measurable gains can be demonstrated, rather than wholesale reinvention of the air interface.
• The Release 21 timeline is now defined, reducing planning uncertainty. For device and infrastructure manufacturers, this turns 6G from an open-ended study into a concrete planning horizon, with feature direction becoming firm through 2027 to 2028 and requirements stabilizing into 2029.
• Meaningful enhancements are emerging in the uplink, for energy efficiency, and in mid-band capacity. Realizing these gains, particularly in new spectrum, will require hardware evolution alongside software upgrades, while 6G deployments in existing bands will be possible through software upgrades.
• 6G is being designed from the start for diverse device types ranging from smartphones and wearables, to IoT modules or fixed wireless access terminals.

The development of the 6G standard is entering a more concrete phase. At the June 2026 3GPP RAN Plenary in Singapore, the industry advanced several key areas under study and finalized the timeline for Release 21 — the first release expected to define 6G.

These updates build on a broader set of decisions made over the past year, as 3GPP moved through the Release 20 study phase. Together, they provide a clearer view of how 6G is evolving: what has already been determined, and where further refinement is still underway.

How 6G builds on 5G: the foundational decisions already made

A defining characteristic of 6G standardization so far is that many of its core technology decisions were made earlier than some might realize.

During the 2025 study phase, 3GPP RAN1 established agreement on the foundational elements of the 6G air interface through a series of early agreements, most notably in August and October 2025 meetings, where initial baseline decisions were reached across waveform, modulation, frame structure and channel coding.

At the center of those discussions was a consistent principle: retain proven 5G technologies and extend them only where measurable gains can be demonstrated in the areas of system efficiency (spectral, energy) and user experience (coverage, energy and area efficiencies).

This is reflected across several foundational areas:

• Waveform: continuation of CP‑OFDM and DFT‑s‑OFDM as the baseline for downlink (DL) and uplink (UL).
• Modulation: carry-forward of 5G NR constellation structures, with higher-order and shaping extensions under study.
• Frame structure and numerology: reuse of the 5G NR slot-based framework and scalable numerology.
• Channel coding: continuation of LDPC (data) and Polar coding (control) as the core coding framework.

These elements define the core mechanics of the air interface — how spectrum is used, how signals are encoded and how user equipment (e.g., smartphones or other types of devices) communicates with the network. The fact that they were aligned early in the study phase signals strong continuity from 5G into 6G.

At the same time, this continuity at the connectivity layer does not limit the broader impact of 6G. The system is being designed to operate alongside advances in areas such as AI and distributed computing, enabling capabilities that extend well beyond traditional connectivity with energy efficiency, for networks and devices, omnipresent in all design discussions.

The implication is subtle but important: 6G will evolve the fundamentals of wireless connectivity in a measured way, while enabling more significant system-level changes in how networks and devices are used.

Why 6G extends DFT-s-OFDM: multi-layer uplink and what it enables

One area where 6G extends the 5G foundation in a meaningful way is uplink transmission.

In 5G, DFT‑s‑OFDM, an uplink waveform optimized for power efficiency, was limited to single-layer transmission (i.e., non-MIMO operation from single user perspective). In 6G, this is being extended to support multi-layer transmission, with up to two layers in the uplink.

While technical, this change matters for real-world performance. Supporting multiple layers allows devices to transmit higher data rates while maintaining the power efficiency advantages of DFT‑s‑OFDM. This is particularly relevant for:

• improving uplink coverage across the service area enabling higher uplink throughput at given locations supporting applications that generate more data at the device

As usage continues to shift toward more uplink-intensive scenarios, such as XR, real-time video, sensing and AI-driven workloads, these enhancements become increasingly important.

6G channel bandwidth in the 7 GHz range: what 400 MHz means for capacity

Another important area of agreement is channel bandwidth, particularly for new spectrum around the 7 GHz range.

For 6G, 3GPP has aligned on:

• up to 400 MHz channel bandwidth from the network perspective (DL and UL)
• up to 400 MHz (DL) and 200 MHz (UL) from the device (user equipment) perspective

This represents a meaningful increase compared to typical 5G deployments in mid-band spectrum utilizing 100 MHz channel bandwidths.

In practical terms, higher bandwidth enables:

• more immersive, high-data-rate user experiences.
• faster responsiveness for interactive and real-time services.
• improved reliability as more devices and applications share the network.

These capabilities support the evolution of wireless systems toward more dynamic, multi-device and compute-driven use cases without relying on carrier aggregation, which has shown limitations in responding quickly to bursty traffic due to delays in activation, modification and deactivation.

Key 6Gdevelopments from the June 2026 3GPP RAN plenary in Singapore

The June RAN Plenary marked a transition point, from early study toward more concrete definition, across several areas of the 6G air interface and system design.

The 6G roadmap is now defined

A major outcome of the meeting was agreement on the Release 21 timeline:

• March 2027: approval of the 6G Work Item defining the scope of 6G Radio (6GR).
• Late 2028: functional freezes for physical layer (September) and protocol design (December).
• March 2029: final ASN.1 freeze marking the completion of the first release of 6G.

These milestones define when the technical design of key features is locked and when implementation targets become stable across the ecosystem.

They also provide a clearer timeline for device development: early feature direction will become increasingly concrete through 2027–2028, with requirements largely stabilizing after the functional freeze milestones and finalizing with the 2029 specification freeze.

Baseline assessment completed across key PHY areas

The plenary reviewed the first formal checkpoint assessment from its Physical Layer group (i.e., RAN1) covering the major elements of the 6G air interface:

• Waveform
• Channel coding
• Modulation
• Frame structure and numerology
• Channel bandwidth
• Synchronization signal design

Across most of these areas, progress was considered sufficient, with no need for Plenary intervention. This confirms that the 6G baseline, anchored in 5G NR, remains intact, with innovation focused on targeted enhancements.

Deploying 6G: when software upgrades suffice and when hardware evolution is required

A recurring theme in the June discussions was how 6G will be introduced in practice, particularly the balance between software upgrades and new hardware requirements.

From an operator perspective, the ability to deploy 6G through software upgrades on existing infrastructure is a well-understood and desirable goal for existing frequency bands. However, it is also recognized that fully realizing the potential of 6G will require hardware evolution.

This is especially true for new spectrum bands, such as those around 7 GHz, which require new RF front-end designs and supporting hardware capabilities. More broadly, several of the enhancements under consideration, including new LDPC base graphs and constellation shaping, depend on capabilities that go beyond what current systems were designed to support.

The challenge is balancing these priorities:

• enabling a smooth transition from 5G where feasible
• while ensuring 6G is not constrained by existing hardware limits

This balance will play an important role in shaping both network deployment strategies and the evolution of device capabilities.

LDPC and Polar coding in 6G: how the new BG3 base graph extends the 5G framework

Channel coding decisions reinforce continuity with 5G, with LDPC codes retained for data channels and Polar codes for control channels. At the same time, 3GPP has agreed on an extension to the LDPC framework through a third base graph (BG3), aimed at improving decoder area efficiency especially for high-data rates, while maintaining comparable performance. Its applicability across data-rate ranges has been aligned with a pragmatic approach: avoiding impact on existing 5G deployments, while creating clear incentives for infrastructure support and enabling more efficient implementations for future devices, including at lower data rates.

Where key decisions are still open

While the foundation of 6G is now well established, several areas remain under active study. These are the areas most likely to define how far 6G ultimately extends beyond 5G:

• the degree of improvement in spectral efficiency.
• the trade-offs between performance and implementation complexity.
• the extent of enhancements beyond the 5G baseline.

These topics will continue to evolve through the next phase of study.

What to watch next: September as an inflection point

The next major checkpoint will come at the September RAN Plenary, where several of the remaining study items, particularly in modulation and 5G to 6G migration, are expected to reach more definitive conclusions.

Bottom line

The June 2026 plenary did not finalize 6G, but it significantly clarified its direction.

• The foundation, built on proven 5G technologies, is already in place.
• The roadmap to specification is now defined.
• The areas where meaningful enhancements will emerge are becoming clearer.

For device and infrastructure manufacturers, these signals reduce uncertainty and provide a clearer planning horizon.

Taken together, the timeline and technical direction are becoming more predictable: early design decisions are already in place, key enhancements are being refined and device requirements will progressively stabilize through the Release 21 milestones toward final specification.

Go Deeper

How do the June 2026 decisions connect to what 3GPP agreed during the Release 20 study phase?

The Release 21 timeline and baseline PHY confirmations announced in June build directly on foundational agreements from the 2025 study phase — most notably from the August and October 2025 RAN1 meetings, where initial decisions on waveform, modulation, frame structure and channel coding were reached. Those earlier sessions established the defining principle that has shaped 6G standardization ever since: retain what works in 5G, and extend only where measurable gains can be demonstrated. 

The post covers waveform, coding and bandwidth decisions — but where do specific air interface advances like Giga MIMO fit within this Release 21 framework?

The Release 21 baseline is anchored in the core mechanics of the air interface, but the targeted enhancements still under active study — in spectral efficiency, advanced transmission schemes and new spectrum operation — are where the distance from 5G will ultimately be measured.

With the Release 21 timeline now defined, what does this concretely mean for device and infrastructure manufacturers planning today?

With the March 2027 Work Item approval, the late 2028 functional freezes and the March 2029 ASN.1 freeze now confirmed, feature direction is becoming increasingly concrete — giving device and infrastructure manufacturers a clearer planning horizon than was possible during the open-ended study phase, with requirements progressively stabilizing through each milestone.