6G Timeline — When Is 6G Coming?
"When is 6G coming?" has a clearer answer than it used to. In 2026, 3GPP approved the schedule for the first 6G specifications.
Status: The Release 21 timeline was approved by 3GPP in June 2026. Dates are 3GPP's planned schedule; commercial deployment follows the specifications by a few years.
The two releases that matter
6G in 3GPP spans two releases:
- Release 20 — the study phase. Requirements, scenarios, and architecture captured as study reports. No final specifications yet; this is where 6G is explored.
- Release 21 — the first specifications. The first normative 6G Technical Specifications, developed alongside continued 5G-Advanced work.
The approved schedule
At the June 2026 plenary meetings in Singapore, 3GPP approved the Release 21 timeline — the first time dates for 6G specifications were locked in:
| Milestone | Date |
|---|---|
| Release 21 package approval & Stage 1 (requirements) freeze | March 2027 |
| Stage 2 (architecture) 80% checkpoint | March 2028 |
| Stage 2 (architecture) freeze | June 2028 |
| Stage 3 (protocols) functional freeze | December 2028 |
| Final code freeze (ASN.1 / OpenAPI) | March 2029 |
What the stages mean
3GPP specifies systems in three stages:
- Stage 1 — the service requirements: what the system must do.
- Stage 2 — the architecture: the functions, interfaces, and procedures.
- Stage 3 — the detailed protocols: the exact message formats and encodings.
The functional freeze (December 2028) is the point at which the feature set is essentially fixed; the final code freeze (March 2029) completes the detailed encodings.
From specification to real networks
A frozen specification is not a deployed network. After the specifications complete around 2028–2029, chipsets, equipment, and devices have to be built, tested, and certified, and spectrum has to be allocated (6G spectrum decisions are expected at the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027). The practical result: commercial 6G is widely expected around 2030. Anything promising consumer 6G much earlier is marketing rather than a standards reality.
How this builds on 5G-Advanced
Release 21 carries both 6G and continued 5G-Advanced work. Many 5G-Advanced features — AI/ML, integrated sensing, non-terrestrial networks, ambient IoT — are the groundwork that 6G builds on, so the transition is an evolution rather than a clean break.
Reference points (3GPP)
- The 3GPP Release 21 timeline announcement (June 2026 plenaries), recorded in the Release 21 timeline agreement documents.
- TR 22.870 / TR 38.914 — the 6G requirements and scenario studies.
In short
Study now (Release 20), first specifications by late 2028 / early 2029 (Release 21), commercial 6G around 2030.