6G Adoption Will Hinge on Operator Economics, GSMA Intelligence Says
RCR Wireless News, Thursday, October 15th, 2026
GSMA Intelligence forecasts 2.4 billion 6G connections by 2035, with operator ROI rather than capacity setting the pace.
GSMA Intelligence's Matthew Iji says return on investment, not raw capacity demand, will decide how quickly 6G rolls out, since operators are still monetizing 5G and 5G-Advanced.
The firm forecasts about 50 million 6G connections at the end of 2030, rising past one billion in 2033 and to 2.4 billion by 2035.
Even then, 5G will hold about 60% of mobile connections versus 23% for 6G.
Iji expects AI-enabled cameras, wearables, sensors and XR devices to shift traffic toward uploads, putting pressure on uplink capacity, latency and reliability.