China Enters Phase Two of 6G Technical Trials

China has formally entered the second phase of 6G technical trials, marking a transition from foundational research to structured, system-level validation. The announcement was made on January 21, 2026, during a State Council Information Office press conference reviewing national achievements in industry and information technology.

With more than 4.8 million 5G base stations deployed and over 1.2 billion 5G users, China is positioning 6G not as a speculative upgrade, but as a planned successor aligned with long-term industrial and digital strategy.

🌐 What Is 6G (IMT-2030)?

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6G is the sixth generation of mobile communications and is officially referred to as IMT-2030 by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It is intended to serve as the foundational communications infrastructure of the 2030s.

Key characteristics include:

• Throughput: Projected to be 10–100× faster than 5G, with peak rates potentially reaching the terabit-per-second range.
• System vision: A unified fabric connecting the physical, biological, and digital worlds, enabling large-scale digital twins and pervasive intelligence.

Rather than focusing purely on speed, 6G is designed as an intelligence-native network, embedding sensing, computing, and AI directly into the communications layer.

🚀 Six Application Scenarios: 6G vs 5G

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While 5G was built around three pillars—enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), ultra-reliable low-latency communications (uRLLC), and massive machine-type communications (mMTC)—6G expands this framework into six major scenarios:

1. Immersive Communication
   Holographic calls, multi-sensory XR, and realistic telepresence.

2. Integrated Sensing and Communication
   Networks that act as sensors, detecting objects, motion, and environments without dedicated radar systems.

3. Hyper-Reliable Ultra-Low Latency
   Enabling applications such as remote surgery and precision industrial robotics.

4. Ubiquitous Connectivity
   Seamless integration across satellite, aerial, terrestrial, and maritime networks.

5. Massive Machine Connectivity
   Supporting dense, energy-efficient IoT deployments for smart cities and sustainability.

6. Integrated AI and Communication
   AI-native networks capable of distributed learning, reasoning, and autonomous optimization.

🧠 The “Three Fusions” Defining 6G

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Industry experts often summarize the leap from 5G to 6G as three fundamental integrations:

• AI Fusion
  AI optimizes the network itself, while the network becomes the global substrate for AI workloads—often described as AI for 6G and 6G for AI.

• Sensing Fusion
  Base stations evolve into high-precision sensing nodes, supporting applications such as autonomous driving and the emerging low-altitude economy (drones and urban air mobility).

• Compute Fusion
  Networks shift from pure data transport to distributed computing fabrics, where processing power is available on demand, anywhere.

📊 Performance Targets: 5G vs 6G

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These targets reflect a shift toward precision, density, and intelligence rather than headline bandwidth alone.

🗺️ Roadmap to Commercial 6G

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According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the initial research phase has already produced more than 300 key technology reserves. The forward plan is now clearly defined:

• 2025–2026: Second-phase technical trials (prototype validation and solution testing)
• 2027–2028: Third-phase system networking trials with pre-commercial equipment
• 2029: Release of the first commercial 6G standard (3GPP Release 21)
• 2030: Commercial launch of 6G services

China’s move into second-phase 6G trials signals that next-generation wireless is no longer speculative. With a structured roadmap and clear performance goals, 6G is being shaped as a core pillar of the intelligent, connected infrastructure of the 2030s.