What mobile networks standardize today, what the next generation keeps, and which ideas are still being argued over.
Current evidence window
5G September 2026 plenaries
6G September 2026 plenaries and October 2026 working groups
Each edition states its evidence window and source maturity explicitly.
Two generations, two maturity models
A meeting can adopt a 6G study result without creating a normative 6G standard. The monitor keeps those states separate.
01 · In service
Standardized and evolving
5G is a deployed standards family, not a finished one. Its radio and core baseline is stable; current work concentrates on AI-assisted radio, Ambient IoT, satellite access, energy use and operational refinement.
02 · In development
Study agreements, not yet a normative standard
6G is taking shape through explicit choices about what to reuse from 5G, what to extend and what complexity not to carry forward. The current picture is a study baseline with unresolved branches, not a finished specification.
Comparable definitions only
| Parameter | 5G standard | 6G study baseline |
|---|---|---|
| Theoretical peak data rate | 20 / 10 Gbit/s Downlink / uplink target under the evaluation assumptions in TR 38.913. | 36 / 18 Gbit/s Downlink / uplink requirement in the current 6G scenarios report. |
| Connection density | 10⁶ devices/km² Massive machine-type communication target; this is not user density. | 10⁶ devices/km² Massive IoT requirement; this is device density, not a typical number of people. |
| Radio latency target | 1 ms User-plane URLLC target under defined radio conditions, not general end-to-end latency. | 1 ms A service-specific radio target under defined assumptions, not end-to-end latency. |
| Basic waveform | CP-OFDM · CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM Downlink · uplink. The uplink can trade flexibility for lower peak-to-average power. | CP-OFDM · CP-OFDM or DFT-s-OFDM Downlink · uplink. The basic waveform remains an evolution of 5G NR. |
| 5th-percentile spectral efficiency | 0.225 / 0.15 bit/s/Hz Downlink / uplink IMT-2020 requirement in the dense-urban eMBB scenario, as evaluated by 3GPP for NR; TR 38.913 sets it at three times IMT-Advanced. | 0.675 / 0.45 bit/s/Hz Downlink / uplink in the dense-urban evaluation scenario. |
| Horizontal positioning | 3 m indoor · 10 m outdoor (80% of UEs, Rel-16) Rel-16 commercial target for 80% of UEs (the 6G figure is the 90th percentile). Rel-17 tightened it to under 1 m for 90% of UEs (TR 38.857). | 0.75 m indoor · 6 m urban macro (90% of UEs) 90th-percentile horizontal error; the internal vertical target is 3 metres. |
Latest evidence window
SA2 noted a consolidated summary of three candidate architectures and polled companies informally, but did not choose. The SA plenary wants the decision no later than SA2#178 in November.
SA2 approved interim principles for the 6G core: a single NAS protocol stack and one serving xAMF per phone, and single registration with either the 5G or the 6G core for interworking. Dual registration remains for further study.
RAN1 fixed two candidate SSB positions per slot and four-step random access as the baseline, and moved the SSB length and its default period to RAN1#127.
Evaluations showed net losses for spectrum shaping with 16QAM, so RAN1 does not pursue a dedicated low-PAPR enhancement for it.
The RAN plenary started no Release 20 work on relaxing transmitter EVM with DPoD. Reported link gains ranged from −0.8 to 4.2 dB and testability stayed open; it may become a Release 21 6G objective and return to 5G-Advanced only if the design transfers.
The monitor combines frozen specifications, active work and meeting decisions. Outcome and standard maturity are deliberately separate: “adopted” does not always mean “normative specification”.
Commercial deployment is not tracked in this version. Every factual row links to a specification or meeting document so the editorial interpretation can be checked.