- SoftBank says outdoor trials in Tokyo’s Ginza district showed 7GHz performance comparable to its 3.9GHz band, using Nokia-supplied base stations and test equipment.
- Anritsu says it will showcase 6G-oriented test and measurement systems at MWC 2026, including software-based signaling tests and multiband RF validation up to 16GHz.
- Omdia says the 6G industry is moving into a more coordinated R&D phase where spectrum planning is increasingly central.
SoftBank is betting that one of the most awkward questions around 6G — what spectrum it will actually run on — has a practical answer in the 7GHz range. In a company update, the operator said outdoor field trials in Tokyo’s Ginza district showed 7GHz performance comparable to its current 3.9GHz band.
That’s a big deal right now because the 6G conversation is narrowing fast. Less “science project,” more “what can operators deploy in real streets without a forest of new sites.”
Analyst firm Omdia is making a similar point in its latest 6G note, arguing the industry is moving into a more coordinated R&D phase — with spectrum availability becoming a cornerstone alongside use-case work and early standards activity.
SoftBank said it built an experimental setup with Nokia supplying base stations and test gear, while SoftBank handled the network design and validation. The operator deployed three test base stations in Ginza and compared results against its 3.9GHz sites.
The company said it tracked RSRP (signal strength) and SINR (signal quality) during a drive test, comparing 3.9GHz and 7GHz in real time. SoftBank’s summary: both stayed consistently strong across the route.
One reason Ginza matters is geometry. SoftBank said it saw the “urban canyon” effect — reflections and diffraction from buildings — helping 7GHz propagate in line-of-sight areas, sometimes matching or exceeding 3.9GHz in the same locations.
In non-line-of-sight sections, SoftBank said it saw almost no outage, a detail it’s using to argue that 7GHz isn’t automatically a “short-range only” band.
At a SoftBank-hosted technical conference, Nokia’s Ari Kynäslahti described the broader 6.4–8.4GHz range as a “Golden Band for 6G,” and said the 7GHz equipment used in the trial is comparable in size to 3.5GHz gear while allowing more antenna elements for beamforming.
SoftBank executive Ryuji Wakikawa also tied the spectrum work to the company’s broader network roadmap, pointing to edge computing and AI-RAN — the idea of running radio processing and AI workloads on the same GPU-based platform — as part of where SoftBank sees networks heading.
While operators are collecting field data, test vendors are trying to make sure the lab can keep up. In a January 14 news release, Anritsu said it will use MWC 2026 in Barcelona to show 6G-focused test and measurement systems built around software, virtualization, and AI-assisted workflows, including a 6G Test Platform centered on a Virtual Signalling Tester (a software-based approach for early-stage protocol and radio validation).
Anritsu also said its MT8000A Radio Communication Test Station now supports “Upper Mid-Band” frequencies up to 16GHz across FR1, FR2, and FR3, alongside software upgrades for non-terrestrial network testing — including Direct-to-Cell and NR-NTN — with real-time emulation of satellite and aerial link conditions.
There are still plenty of ways this can get messy. SoftBank’s data comes from a limited, operator-controlled trial — three experimental sites in one of the world’s most favorable dense-urban environments — and scaling that to wider coverage raises harder questions about interference management, equipment cost, and how much spectrum can realistically be made available in the 7GHz neighborhood.
But taken together, this week’s updates sketch the same shift Omdia is pointing to: 6G is moving from concept decks to measurements, tooling, and spectrum arguments that regulators and standards bodies will have to grapple with soon.
