By Amara Osei

Orange's Alok Srivastava has told carriers to stop dreaming of ripping out their 5G networks and starting again. The Orange executive wants operators to sweat 5G for the rest of this decade rather than bet the farm on a "big bang" 6G switchover, per industry trade outlet TelcoTitans.

That is a notable sound from one of Europe's largest incumbents, and it lands squarely inside a debate the sector has been ducking for two years.

What is Srivastava actually telling operators?

The "big bang" framing means exactly what it sounds like: tear down a working 5G layer, stand up a fresh 6G one on a single cutover date. Srivastava prefers the opposite. Evolve, don't replace. New 6G cells get layered on top. Existing radio units stay put unless they earn a swap.

Practically, that buys Orange — and any carrier that follows the script — several more years of depreciating today's mid-band spectrum and standalone core kit before any 6G capex line turns up on the CFO's desk.

How does this fit the wider industry mood?

Standardization is the lever that decides when Srivastava's caution matters. The ITU's 6G specification track, named IMT-2030, targets completion around 2030. 3GPP will then draft the matching radio and core specifications.

Vendors have already started selling that future. Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung are all pushing "AI-native" 6G ahead of WRC-27, the next World Radiocommunication Conference where 6G spectrum bands get hammered out. The pitch leans on industrial slicing, integrated sensing and energy savings rather than raw peak speeds.

Operators are starting to bristle. The GSMA spent much of last year warning that 5G capex had not paid back across the membership. 5G mid-band auctions across Europe left operators carrying substantial spectrum liabilities on long amortisation schedules. Srivastava's intervention slots into that line, with the weight of a tier-one operator behind it.

Where does that leave Orange?

Orange's own 5G standalone rollout has been measured rather than headline-grabbing, with a slower deployment than peers chasing standalone scale across every band. That posture makes Srivastava's caution easier to defend internally than it would be at a carrier going all-in on standalone.

Think of it as one operator's vote to keep doing what it has already paid for — and to let the rest of the decade's 5G capex earn its keep before any 6G commitments start signing cheques.

What next?

The calendar leaves carriers in no rush. IMT-2030 finalisation lands around 2030. First commercial 6G networks are pencilled in for the early 2030s, with WRC-27 setting the spectrum blocks those devices will use.

For Orange and its peers, the arithmetic is simple: finish the 5G job first, retire what doesn't earn its keep, and stop letting vendor slide decks set the capex calendar. The 6G cycle, on this reading, is a 2030s problem — not a 2020s one.