Close to a thousand candidate use cases have already landed at 3GPP's SA1 working group for 6G, yet nobody can yet say which of them will actually make money. That was the sobering starting point at the recent RCR Wireless 6G Forum, where panelists tried to pin down how the industry might extract more value from the next generation of mobile technology, due from 2030 onward.

Rana Kamill, senior network architecture and standards manager at BT, said it is "still not 100% certain" which will be the "winning use cases that are definitely going to generate huge income." Her prescription: 6G must be monetized through intelligence, automation and measurable business outcomes rather than connectivity or smartphone speed, the metrics that defined the 5G era.

What did BT say about 6G experiences?

"5G improved connectivity, but we believe that 6G should improve experiences," Kamill told the forum. "So AI-powered services, seamless connectivity that works anywhere, anytime, with the performance that the user needs. So the industry must start with a business problem, not just the technology."

The topic generating the most traction is integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) — networks that detect drones, vehicles and people rather than simply carrying data. Kamill said BT has studied the area closely and believes sensing "could create very good opportunities for 6G."

Stephen Douglas, head of strategic thought leadership at test and measurement specialist Keysight Technologies, called sensing a "dominant" area of industry interest, with two standout applications: drone sensing, and sensing within robotics for industrial and domestic settings.

Importantly, Douglas argued operators do not need to wait for 6G. They can start "building the business case" for sensing on existing 5G networks, especially as 5G Advanced rolls out. He pointed to pilots on Verizon's 5G network with Lockheed Martin, NVIDIA, ODC and Astris AI, which tested the NetSense airspace awareness-as-a-service system. The companies said the demonstration proved the technology can sense unmanned aircraft systems without changing existing cellular radio deployments.

When does NetSense become commercial?

Pilot deployments of NetSense are planned for 2026 and early 2027, with commercial general availability set for 2027. That timeline sits well ahead of any 6G standard, and it frames a broader argument at the forum: should commercial interests lead on sensing while 3GPP catches up?

Gus Anderson, a fellow at Lockheed Martin, came down firmly on the side of market demand. "If we wait for 3GPP to come out with a standard and then we follow, we're going to … have something that's cumbersome and does a lot of things and doesn't solve any of our problems," he said. Standards, in his view, should enable interoperability and broader adoption where appropriate.

Martin Weiss, director for FutureG Applied Research at the FutureG Office within the US Department of Defense, took a similar line. He acknowledged that 3GPP standards can improve scale and operational economics for vendors and operators, but favors a minimalist approach: "standardise what you must," and leave the rest alone.

Can the technical hurdles be cleared?

Not overnight, according to Daniel Bliss, a professor at Arizona State University. He stressed that adapting cellular systems for sensing involves hard problems — receiver dynamic range, self-interference, angular resolution and clutter — and said there was "a lot to do" for 3GPP. He was quick to add, though, that the standards body is trying to move quickly.

The release plan reflects that urgency. 3GPP is developing ISAC across 5G-Advanced in Release 19 and Release 20, before transitioning the work into core 6G specifications in Release 21.

What other revenue streams did panelists identify?

• Digital twins for safely testing network vulnerabilities, per BT's Kamill
• Industrial fixed wireless access, resilient communications and non-terrestrial networks, per Keysight's Douglas
• Private 6G networks for industries such as utilities, suggested by Jaydee Griffith, managing director of the Next G Alliance

"While they may use commercial networks for some functions, they really want to own their own infrastructure," Griffith said of utility customers.

Preeti Nagarajan, head of portfolio operation and technology for Business Area Networks at Ericsson, made the case for physical AI — robots, drones and connected machines requiring greater uplink capacity, reliable low-latency communications and precise positioning. "Physical AI is probably my most favorite use case, and I'm definitely rooting for it to leave the building," she quipped.

With NetSense pilots due in 2026 and commercial availability targeted for 2027, the industry will get an early read on whether sensing can pay its own way — several years before the first 6G networks appear.