Verizon tests 7GHz for 6G and finds indoor coverage gaps

By Rebecca Stone

Verizon and Ericsson made the first 6G call in the field with pre-commercial equipment on 7GHz spectrum last month, testing a US candidate band before work on 6G standards is complete.

At the Brooklyn AI-Native 6G Summit last week, Verizon CTO Yago Tenorio gave an early verdict that was not encouraging for indoor penetration. He said:

“7GHz versus 3.5GHz, not surprisingly, has some challenges in penetrating buildings.”

What did Verizon's first field test show?

The carrier built a small house for the user equipment, using different wall and window materials to assess signal loss across indoor scenarios. The trial examined upper-midband propagation and building penetration; it did not test a commercial launch.

Verizon disclosed no subscriber numbers, geographic coverage or throughput for the call. The results therefore indicate how radio signals behaved in a purpose-built test setting, not what a wider 7GHz network would deliver.

Tenorio's conclusion was that 7GHz would not bring cellular signals indoors as effectively as midband spectrum, an outcome he considered unsurprising because of the band's higher frequency.

Can radio engineering close the indoor gap?

Verizon would need more antenna density, a higher active-element count, greater output power and higher limits for effective isotropic radiated power, according to Tenorio. He said those measures might solve the problem, but 7GHz would still probably struggle to match the footprint of C-band spectrum, generally 3.7GHz to 4.2GHz.

Verizon did not disclose the cost, power consumption or timetable associated with those changes, leaving the commercial scale of the remedy undefined.

Which spectrum bands are under consideration?

The US government is pressing for 7GHz to become a prime 6G band, but commercial access depends on NTIA's review of four candidate ranges for future mobile services:

• 7GHz: 7,125MHz to 7,400MHz.
• 1.6GHz: 1,675MHz to 1,695MHz.
• 2.7GHz: 2,700MHz to 2,900MHz.
• 4GHz: 4,400MHz to 4,940MHz.

What has to happen before 7GHz reaches market?

NTIA will publish its 7GHz report at an event on December 10. The report will cover how much spectrum can be cleared for commercial use, when operators can obtain access and the cost of relocating existing federal users.

NTIA chief administrator Arielle Roth said:

“Once that report is released, we hope the FCC will move quickly to launch a rulemaking for a 7 GHz auction so we can bring this important block of mid-band spectrum to market as quickly as possible.”

Her statement establishes a sequence rather than a delivery date: report, FCC rulemaking and then an auction. Neither an auction timetable nor an estimate of federal-user relocation costs has been announced.

The US is also seeking international backing for 7GHz at next year's ITU World Radiocommunication Conference. Roth said the campaign would increase midband availability for 6G and counter adversaries' efforts to steer the world toward the 6GHz band. Until the US and international processes advance, 7GHz remains under study rather than cleared for 6G networks.

Can wide channels support 6G use cases?

Tenorio said the unresolved standards problem is access to channels as wide as 400MHz, a target set out for 6G. The proposed 7GHz interval spans 275MHz, leaving it 125MHz narrower than a single 400MHz channel.

He characterized 2.7GHz as narrow, 4GHz as uncertain and 7GHz as challenged. He said none of the three offered a clear line of sight to a 400MHz channel, repeating the concern he raised at the previous year's Brooklyn event.

Bandwidth also matters for integrated sensing and communication, or ISAC. Tenoirio pointed to two separate Verizon trials, conducted with Nokia and Qualcomm, showing that greater bandwidth improves target detection and resolution. He said wide channels can improve sensing precision and accuracy, not merely network capacity.

What else is Verizon testing?

Verizon received a temporary FCC license to test 6G use cases in 4GHz spectrum in and around its laboratory in Los Angeles. The carrier has not published trial dates, measured performance or a commercial timetable for that work.

Verizon also recently expanded its 6G Innovation Forum with nine new members. Its stated approach places use cases before the development of matching capabilities, rather than designing technology first and looking for applications afterward.

Tenorio identified AI wearables, ISAC and symmetrical uplink as use cases becoming clearer. He said substantial work remained to shape 6G, including opening a pipeline of wideband midband spectrum, addressing AI wearable requirements and ensuring that 6G supports these applications by 2030.

What did Ericsson change in manufacturing?

Separately, Ericsson has stopped making millimeter-wave radios at its 5G smart factory in Lewisville, Texas, and consolidated production at a manufacturing site in Estonia. No output, employment or transition timetable accompanied the announcement.

The change concerns existing 5G radio production and does not demonstrate volume manufacturing of Verizon's pre-commercial 7GHz equipment for 6G.

The next dated checkpoints are NTIA's December 10 report, a possible FCC rulemaking and auction, next year's WRC and Verizon's work through 2030; until then, 7GHz remains a pre-commercial 6G prospect rather than a settled network plan.