Verizon expanded its 6G Innovation Forum (6GIF) with nine new members, broadening the industry group it launched in 2025 to support development of an open and diverse 6G ecosystem.

The new members are Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Intel, Keysight Technologies, MediaTek, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks, Rohde & Schwarz and Viavi Solutions. They join founding members Ericsson, Samsung, Nokia, Meta and Qualcomm Technologies.

“By expanding our Innovation Forum and refining live edge-AI trials today, we are ensuring the AI-native 6G network is built from day one to scale 5G Advanced capabilities and translate these next-generation technologies into meaningful, real-world experiences for our customers,” stated Verizon’s Yago Tenorio, CTO and SVP of Technology Development.

Tenorio described the forum’s approach as bottom-up and driven by use cases. Its work focuses on 6G support for AI workloads, wearables including untethered smart glasses, and integrated sensing and communication (ISAC).

The forum will trial use cases, test spectrum bands and bandwidth, and coordinate with standards bodies including 3GPP.

Verizon stated the new members bring expertise in cloud services, silicon and computing, automated testing, network security and immersive graphics simulation.

Verizon also highlighted recent ISAC field trials with founding members Samsung and Qualcomm.

ISAC, viewed as an important capability for future 6G networks, enables mobile infrastructure to function as a radar-like sensing platform. Operators and vendors have begun demonstrating the technology in live environments.

Using 5G-Advanced capabilities, the companies showed how ISAC can support public safety, environmental awareness and event management, creating a path to evolve those functionalities with 6G.

Verizon also called out a prototype of AI Sports Companion as part of its work to design infrastructure around future application requirements. It said AI-native devices and wearables such as smart glasses will require ultra-low latency and a more balanced uplink-downlink model because they will upload substantially more data than current devices.

Built on the Verizon Edge Network, the prototype paired Meta AI glasses with a locally optimised small language model, an Nvidia DGX Spark unit and real-time sports data from SportsDataIO.

Users can ask verbally for player statistics, score analysis or win probabilities and receive spoken answers without checking a phone.

Verizon said the prototype explores how future technology could reduce app switching and provide real-time information without distracting fans from the game.

Members of 6GIF will continue sharing findings from demonstrations involving ISAC, digital twins, robotics, AI and advanced wearables.

Verizon identified the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California, as an interim test bed ahead of commercial 6G deployments. Its 6G Lab in the city will be used to test network capacity and early AI-native use cases.

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Samsung Electronics and Verizon turned live 5G radio signals into real-time crowd heatmaps during a large international football fan event, marking a major field trial for 6G-ready Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) on commercial virtualised RAN (vRAN).

The companies stated the trial in Dallas, Texas proved how sensing networks can enable real-time intelligence for large-scale events in venues such as sports stadiums.

While Samsung and Verizon did not say where the test took place, AT&T Stadium in nearby Arlington, Texas hosted an ISAC demo for drone sensing by AT&T and Ericsson in between World Cup games.

To date ISAC has been touted as a flagship capability for future 6G networks that turns mobile infrastructure into a radar-like sensory platform, but real-life demos have started to take-off.

The trial enabled Samsung and Verizon to validate ISAC technology in a live, real-world environment with changing crowd conditions, to streamline gate operations, reduce concession line wait times, and proactively address overcrowding risks. 

Yago Tenorio, CTO and SVP of Technology Development at Verizon, stated the successful trial demonstrated the operator’s early investments in vRAN “are paying off today, giving us the agility to engineer and trial groundbreaking 6G concepts like ISAC over our existing infrastructure”.

“This field trial with Samsung proves that the network of the future will do far more than just transfer data.” he said. “It will actively perceive and interact with its environment to transform venue management and public safety.”

How it works
To capture data, a CBRS radio unit utilising 40 MHz of spectrum was mounted on a Verizon Cell-On-Wheels (COW) to act as a sensing receiver, tracking wireless channel variations caused by commercial 5G devices.

Samsung integrated its commercial AI-powered vRAN and vCore software with an ISAC application on its Network in a Server (NIS) platform, which is an edge-AI system that consolidates compute and network operations into a single server.

The NIS platform processed signal variations in real time to generate a dynamic crowd-density heatmap which measures spatial density only, without identifying individual users or objects. Vendors and operators are aware there are some privacy concerns related to ISAC ahead of it becoming a key element for the upcoming 6G standards.

The real-time spatial awareness serves multiple groups during large-scale gatherings. Event organisers gain visibility into crowd distribution to manage bottlenecks and deploy staff efficiently, while security agencies can spot emerging congestion early to prevent public safety hazards.

Additionally, venue attendees can use live crowd data to identify less congested concession stands, restrooms and exits.

Charlie Zhang, EVP at Samsung Research America, said the trial represents a major step forward in weaving AI-driven sensing into network infrastructure, underscoring the transformative promise of 6G technologies.

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