Qualcomm Sets 2029 6G Timeline as Huawei Calls for Expanding and Advancing 5G
58 partners joined Qualcomm’s planned 2028 6G demos.
BARCELONA, March 3, 2026 — Qualcomm, the California-based semiconductor company, said 6G would launch in 2029 as “the wireless technology for the age of AI,” as China-based telecom giant Huawei said artificial intelligence was already placing new demands on today’s networks.
Speaking at the Mobile World Congress here, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon called 6G the next major shift in wireless infrastructure, noting that new mobile generations typically emerge about every decade: 2G digitized voice, 4G powered the smartphone economy, and 5G expanded high-definition video and real-time cloud connectivity.
6G, Amon said, would be purpose-built to support AI-driven systems operating across consumer devices, connected vehicles, industrial facilities, and wearable technology.
Global cellular traffic was projected to grow three to seven times by 2034, he said, with AI accounting for roughly 30 percent of that growth. He described 2026 as “the year of agents,” referring to software designed to perform tasks across platforms instead of inside a single application.
Three pillars: Connectivity, computing and sensing
Amon said 6G would rest on three pillars: connectivity, computing, and sensing.
On connectivity, Qualcomm was targeting 50 to 70 percent performance gains in low- and mid-band spectrum, the frequencies most commonly used for broad mobile coverage. He also pointed to the need for stronger uplink performance - the channel that carries data from devices back to the network - as applications increasingly rely on continuous streams of video, audio, and sensor data.
Beyond speed, Amon said future networks would incorporate more processing power at cell sites and regional facilities, allowing operators to handle more workloads within the network itself rather than simply transporting data.
He also described a new sensing capability aimed at supporting an emerging “aerial economy,” in which networks could interpret radio signals to detect objects and environmental conditions, enabling city-scale mapping and drone detection.
Qualcomm said it was working with 58 partners toward demonstrations in 2028, with commercial infrastructure and devices expected by late 2028 for deployment beginning in 2029.
Huawei: Demand is already here
Yang Chaobin, executive vice president at Huawei, said AI growth was already reshaping network demand.
Global daily AI token generation, a metric that reflects how much data large language models process, has increased 300-fold in two years to 260 trillion tokens per day, he said, pointing to a sharp rise in computing demand and network traffic.
He said multimodal interaction, in which voice, video, text, and sensor data are transmitted at the same time, is placing growing pressure on uplink capacity. AI-powered robots and cloud-connected systems require latency below 60 milliseconds and consistent reliability, he added.
While 6G standards discussions continue within the International Telecommunication Union and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), the global consortium that sets mobile specifications, Yang said operators must expand “5G Advanced,” a next-step advance in 5G, in the near term to meet rising demand.
5G Advanced can deliver downlink speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second and meaningfully improve uplink performance under favorable conditions.
Both executives acknowledged uneven global deployment. In parts of East Asia and North America, 5G penetration exceeds 50 percent, while in portions of Africa and Latin America many users remain on 2G networks limited to voice and text services.
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