Verizon just announced a “groundbreaking” trial of technology helping pave the way to 6G. 

One detail worth highlighting: It ran on CBRS.

This week, Verizon announced groundbreaking real-world trials designed to move 6G technologies “from theoretical discussion into practical reality.”  

The spectrum Verizon used to power one of its impressive 6G demonstrations? CBRS.

Verizon and Samsung used a single 5G base station and 40 MHz of CBRS shared spectrum to demonstrate AI-powered Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC). The system used wireless signals and AI to detect crowd density in real time – technology Verizon says could eventually help venues manage crowds, reduce lines, and address overcrowding. Verizon describes ISAC as a technology with a “path to evolve” into 6G.

Which is precisely why the spectrum powering it matters.

CBRS is opening the road to 6G.

Verizon isn’t alone. Working with NVIDIA and Foxconn, researchers at Rice University have successfully tested NVIDIA’s Aerial platform using CBRS spectrum – work NVIDIA says demonstrates the potential for advanced 5G and 6G research in the U.S.

NVIDIA’s use of CBRS identifies something especially important about why spectrum sharing works for innovation: shared access lowers the barriers to experimentation. 

It’s also the real question for policymakers: Should America’s 6G spectrum policy maximize access and innovation across the entire U.S. wireless ecosystem, or maximize power for a handful of cellular carriers?

CBRS has proven that spectrum can produce enormous value without having to surrender it to the exclusive control of a nationwide cellular carrier.

• Universities can use it to conduct 6G research.
• Manufacturers can build private networks.
• Rural providers can connect communities.
• New competitors can build mobile capacity.
• And, as Verizon just demonstrated, even the nation’s largest incumbent wireless carriers can use it to develop technologies on the road to 6G.

For years, America’s largest mobile carriers have argued that winning “the race to 6G” requires clearing even more mid-band spectrum for traditional high-power exclusive licenses. But Verizon, Samsung, NVIDIA, Foxconn, Rice University, and many others are using CBRS to begin building the 6G wireless future. They’re not waiting for another exclusive-spectrum auction because they don’t need to. CBRS shared spectrum gives Verizon the connectivity they need to innovate – and it does so without preventing everyone else from innovating, too.

CBRS uses a shared-access framework that allows spectrum to be used by traditional carriers and manufacturers, schools, hospitals, utilities, rural broadband providers, new mobile competitors, and countless other innovators – not to mention its ability to work alongside federal incumbents, like the Department of War. CBRS has already demonstrated that sharing can support enormous private investment – including powering 3 of every 4 U.S. private 5G networks – while opening wireless innovation to thousands of organizations and connecting hundreds of rural communities.

So, here’s the $100 billion spectrum question… if shared spectrum is already enabling advanced 5G and 6G research and applications, why would America unnecessarily limit access to its finite mid-band spectrum by putting more of it under the exclusive control of three incumbent cellular carriers? (Especially since they tell Wall Street they don’t even need it.)

America needs more mid-band spectrum available for innovation, but that shouldn’t mean more spectrum reserved for incumbents. CBRS demonstrates another model: share the resource, protect critical incumbent operations, and dramatically expand the universe of Americans who can put spectrum to work.

Welcome to the road to 6G. Everyone’s invited.

Verizon deserves credit for investing in technologies that will define America’s wireless future. So do Samsung, NVIDIA, Foxconn, Rice University, and the engineers and researchers doing the work. But there’s a larger lesson in what they’re building: America doesn’t have to choose who gets to innovate with its spectrum. CBRS gives us a model where Verizon can build the future—and thousands of other American innovators can build it right alongside them. That’s a pretty good blueprint for 6G.