Telecom Leaders Warned Against Repeating 5G Errors
Industry experts are reevaluating infrastructure needs to ensure future 6G and AI-RAN deployments generate sustainable revenue.
Updated on Sept. 28, 2026 in Telecommunications
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Industry executives at the recent Intelligent RAN Forum highlighted lessons from the 5G era to inform the development of 6G and AI-RAN technology. They warned that prior rollouts prioritized technical specs over demand, resulting in stagnant revenue for network operators.
Why it matters
As 6G research progresses, operators are pivoting to manage agent-to-agent traffic and machine-to-machine communications. This shift aims to prevent the disconnect between capability and commercial sustainability that defined the 5G rollout.
Operators currently utilize link adaptation, coverage prediction, and coverage compensation to optimize network efficiency. These programmable platforms are being redesigned to handle complex multimodal data and real-time AI services for future autonomous robots.
The players
SK Telecom
A major South Korean telecommunications operator currently leading research and development initiatives for 6G network standards.
Optus
A prominent Australian telecommunications provider focusing on infrastructure requirements for managing emerging agent-to-agent network traffic.
The details
Future networks must manage new traffic patterns created by agent-based AI architectures, which differ significantly from standard mobile usage. To facilitate this, operators are employing network orchestration—the process of coordinating complex server, network, and storage components—alongside edge computing to reduce latency for AI services. This infrastructure shift is designed to support the expected growth in token-based traffic generated by machine-to-machine communication.
Timeline
The Intelligent RAN Forum took place in September 2026.
The Tech Race
The global industry is now shifting its trajectory to avoid the commercial traps observed during the 5G era. This move contrasts with the previous period, which prioritized pure technical capabilities like network slicing and edge computing at the expense of market demand.
These infrastructure changes will eventually support advanced capabilities such as autonomous robots and spatial awareness services for end users. The timeline for the availability of these 6G-enabled features remains subject to ongoing industry development.
The takeaway
Operators are currently re-aligning their 6G research to prioritize revenue-generating use cases alongside technical performance. Industry stakeholders should monitor upcoming 6G standards-setting milestones to see how these infrastructure requirements are formalized.
Further reading
For more on how infrastructure is evolving, visit the Telecommunications section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by RCR Wireless News.
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