Data appendix

The indicator set with its sources, the source registers, the licences of every kind of material and the formats of the edition.

9 min read0 figures8 tables15 notesNR-XTECH-6G-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE

Contents

B.1The indicator set

Table B.1Global baseline indicator set
Indicator	Value	Unit	Year	State	Source
IMT-2020 peak data rate reference	20	Gbit/s	2023	Reported	¹
IMT-2030 peak data rate, highest example	200	Gbit/s	2023	Reported	¹
IMT-2030 user experienced data rate, highest example	500	Mbit/s	2023	Reported	¹
IMT-2030 area traffic capacity, highest example	50	Mbit/s/m²	2023	Reported	¹
IMT-2030 air-interface latency target	0.1 to 1	ms	2023	Reported	¹
IMT-2030 positioning accuracy target	1 to 10	cm	2023	Reported	¹
IMT-2030 mobility target	500 to 1000	km/h	2023	Reported	¹
Release 21 Stage-3 freeze	2028	December	2026	Reported	³
End of ITU candidate proposal window	2029	February	2026	Reported	²
5G subscriptions after Q2 2026	3.3	billion	2026	Reported	⁶
5G subscriptions forecast for end of 2031	6.4	billion	Forecast	Scenario	⁶
Providers with 5G standalone launched	>90	providers	2026	Reported	⁶
Mobile data traffic excluding FWA, end of 2025	146	EB per month	2025	Reported	⁷
RAN market growth forecast, 2025 to 2030	1	% a year	2025 to 2030	Scenario	⁹
EU contribution to the joint undertaking	900	EUR million	2021 to 2027	Reported	¹²
People offline	2.2	billion	2025	Reported	⁸

Indicators, CSV Indicators, JSON

B.2Global source register

The governed source set behind this edition. Each source keeps its authority, coverage, cadence and role; categories describe origin, not truth.

Domains bound by the register

Table B.3Global source register
Source	Category	Coverage	Period	Cadence	Role
ITU-R M.2160¹	intergovernmental body	global	2023	one-off	targets
ITU IMT-2030 page²	intergovernmental body	global	2026	continuous	process
3GPP release pages³⁴	standards partnership	global	2026	per plenary	timetable
Ericsson Mobility Report⁶⁷	vendor	global	2026	half-yearly	subscriptions, traffic
ITU Facts and Figures⁸	intergovernmental body	global	2025	annual	connectivity
Dell’Oro release⁹	analyst firm	global	2025	quarterly	market
NVIDIA and Nokia announcement¹⁰	vendors	global	2025	one-off	AI-RAN
European Commission pages¹¹¹²	EU institution	EU	2026	continuous	policy
Sthankiya et al.¹⁶	peer-reviewed journal	method	2024	one-off	energy
GSMA Intelligence²²	industry association	global	2025	periodic	energy share

B.3Regional reading, 6G across ten clusters

Regional plates follow with the regional editions. This page gives the regional reading of connectivity infrastructure in table form and orders no region.

Table B.4Regional reading, 6G across ten clusters
Region	Principal hazards	Systems most exposed	Baseline evidence
North America	5G was 79% of mobile subscriptions at the end of 2025; 92% forecast for 2031	deployment, compute	Ericsson⁶; NVIDIA and Nokia¹⁰
South America	regional evidence not bound	deployment	regional evidence (not bound)
Europe	Western Europe 54% 5G at the end of 2025; 95% forecast for 2031; EU proposal and funding	policy, deployment	Ericsson⁶; European Commission¹¹¹²
Eurasia	regional evidence not bound	spectrum, supply	regional evidence (not bound)
Middle East and North Africa	GCC 53% 5G at the end of 2025	deployment	Ericsson⁶
Africa	connectivity gaps and access	development	ITU Facts and Figures⁸
South Asia	regional evidence not bound	deployment	regional evidence (not bound)
East Asia	North East Asia 60% 5G at the end of 2025	deployment, supply	Ericsson⁶
ASEAN	regional evidence not bound	deployment	regional evidence (not bound)
Oceania-Pacific	regional evidence not bound	deployment	regional evidence (not bound)

B.4Cluster card: radio access network supply chain

supply chain
RAN
compute
open interfaces

Systems in view: radio equipment, baseband compute, operators, standards bodies
Defining events: concentration at a ten-year high in 2025⁹; AI-RAN announcement in October 2025¹⁰
Couplings: TRD → INF suppliers; AIC → ENE compute power
Capability evidence: open interface work reported¹³¹⁸
Gaps: supplier shares; chip and mineral inputs; compute volumes
Agenda items: Q-02 · Q-04

Dell’Oro reports that market concentration reached a ten-year high in 2025 while total revenue was stable [9].

MARKET

Concentration at a ten-year high

NVIDIA and Nokia stated a USD 1 billion investment and AI-RAN products in October 2025. This is a company announcement and weak evidence [10].

COMPUTE

An AI-RAN announcement

The O-RAN Alliance was founded in 2018 to open radio interfaces, and a tutorial survey describes the architecture [13] [18].

OPENNESS

Open interfaces

B.5How countries appear in the 6G edition

Countries enter the connectivity edition through the readiness chapters of their own national editions, on one card grammar. They are read against peer distributions and thresholds, never ordered.

Table B.5How countries appear in the 6G edition
Card field	What it shows	Source
WEFH+B state	each core system against peer distribution bands	national edition
Couplings	the national dependency matrix	national edition
Risk objects	the national risk portfolio	national edition
Capability rungs	the national capability ladder	national edition
Evidence age	oldest and newest source dates	national source register

Editions in the 2026 Baseline programme

26national

countries and unions

10regional

clusters

16global

flagship and sector

14strategic

systems reports

20frontier

technology reports

How to read a country card

Each system is shown against the distribution of its peers, with thresholds where they exist
Couplings and risk objects come from the country’s own national edition
Capability rungs record evidence, not a judgement of institutions
Evidence age is printed, so older national data are visible as such

Table B.6National Baseline Editions in the 2026 programme
Wave	Countries and unions	State
W0	Canada	ISSUED
W1	United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, European Union, Switzerland	PLANNED
W2	Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Türkiye, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Senegal, Kenya, African Union, India, China, Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia	PLANNED

B.6Licences

Table B.7Licences of each kind of material
Material	Licence
Text	CC BY 4.0
Data	on the licence of each source; Nexus tables CC BY 4.0
Figures	Nexus figures CC BY 4.0; third-party as credited
Maps	boundary source and licence printed on each plate
Metadata	CC0 1.0, as Zenodo publishes it
Third-party data, figures and text	The source’s own licence, credited where it is used; never relicensed
Nexus-authored text, tables and figures: CC BY 4.0 (SPDX CC-BY-4.0). Map plates print their boundary source and licence.

B.7Formats and provenance

Table B.8This edition in every format
Format	Kind	State	What it is	Identifier
Web edition	HTML	On this site	Draft in stewardship review; every value resolves to its source.	NR-XTECH-6G-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0
Print edition	PDF	At release	A4 portrait · screen, print and archival PDF, signed with the web edition at release.	NR-XTECH-6G-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-v1.0.0
Indicator data	CSV · JSON	On this site	16 indicators with unit, year, status and source; the machine-readable copy ships with the evidence bundle at release.	NR-XTECH-6G-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE data release v1
Figures	SVG · PNG	On this site	4 on the web edition: headline figure, figure 1.3, coupling instrument, capability ladder.	FIG-XTECH-6G-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE-*
Slides	PDF	Not recorded	No slide deck is recorded for this edition.
Evidence brief	HTML · PDF	Not recorded	No evidence brief is recorded for this edition.
Dataset with DOI	DataCite	At release	Concept and version DOI are minted at deposit; none is recorded yet.

Provenance

Edition pack: The edition’s content pack (JSON), from which the print and web editions are built
Evidence cut: DC-XTECH-6G-GLOBAL-2026-B0, closed 30 September 2026
Reproducibility: sourced values cited; analytical values reproducible from stated parameters
Self-check: 14 of 23 at evidence close; a fail on any item blocks release
Review: five passes scheduled before release (in Annex C)
Publisher of record: The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI) for the Nexus Consortium
Corrections: Registry correction pathway; upheld corrections are published as notices with a new version

Notes

Numbers are the edition’s reference numbers, so a note reads the same in every chapter. The full list, with every source and its licence, is in Annex C. Annex C, references

1ITU-R (ed.), Recommendation ITU-R M.2160-0, Framework and overall objectives of the future development of IMT for 2030 and beyond, November 2023 (PDF opened; capability research targets in section 4). International Telecommunication Union, Geneva. Observation year 2023. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
33GPP (ed.), Release 21 page (timetable agreed at the June 2026 TSG#112 plenaries; first normative 6G release; Stage-3 freeze December 2028; ASN.1 freeze March 2029). 3rd Generation Partnership Project, Sophia Antipolis. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
2ITU-R (ed.), IMT-2030 process page of Working Party 5D (timeline; candidate proposal window February 2027 to February 2029; draft reports 5/116 and 5/119 completed in 2026 and due for SG 5 approval in December 2026). International Telecommunication Union, Geneva. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
6Ericsson (ed.), Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026, mobile subscriptions outlook (company report and forecast; 5G subscriptions close to 3.3 billion after Q2 2026; forecast 6.4 billion for 2031; over 90 providers with 5G standalone of about 390 with 5G; regional 5G penetration). Ericsson, Stockholm. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
7Ericsson (ed.), Ericsson Mobility Report, June 2026, mobile traffic forecast (company forecast; 146 EB per month excluding FWA at the end of 2025; 328 EB per month in 2031; 22 GB per active smartphone per month in 2025). Ericsson, Stockholm. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
9Dell’Oro Group (ed.), RAN market stabilised in 2025 (press release of 17 February 2026; analyst release; stable 2025 revenue; Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, ZTE and Samsung in unchanged order; concentration at a ten-year high; 1% a year growth forecast 2025 to 2030; about a fifth of value lost 2022 to 2024). Dell’Oro Group, Redwood City. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
12European Commission (ed.), Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking policy page (at least EUR 1.8 billion for 2021 to 2027; EUR 900 million public contribution; 20 6G research projects with EUR 116 million announced March 2026). Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, Brussels. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
8ITU (ed.), Facts and Figures 2025 (almost three quarters of the world online; 2.2 billion offline; 5G coverage above half of the population; page read, no absolute online count stated). International Telecommunication Union, Geneva. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
43GPP (ed.), Release 20 page (5G-Advanced timeline; early 6G studies listed, including TR 22.870 and TR 38.914; work plan of March 2026). 3rd Generation Partnership Project, Sophia Antipolis. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
10NVIDIA and Nokia (eds.), NVIDIA to invest USD 1 billion in Nokia to accelerate AI-RAN innovation (joint company press release of 28 October 2025; USD 6.01 per share; ARC-Pro platform; T-Mobile field evaluations from 2026; company announcement, weak evidence). NVIDIA, Santa Clara, and Nokia, Espoo. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
11European Commission (ed.), Digital Networks Act policy page (proposal adopted 21 January 2026; single passport; EU satellite spectrum authorisation; copper phase-out plans; preparedness plan). Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, Brussels. Observation year 2026. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
16Sthankiya, K., Saeed, N., McSorley, G., Jaber, M. and Clegg, R.G., A Survey on AI-driven Energy Optimisation in Terrestrial Next Generation Radio Access Networks, IEEE Access 12, 157540 to 157555, 2024 (arXiv:2411.02164, submitted 4 November 2024; abstract page opened). IEEE, Piscataway. Observation year 2024. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
22UNVERIFIED, not opened: GSMA Intelligence (ed.), analysis of mobile network energy use (RAN about 73% of operator energy; energy 20% to 40% of operator operating cost), taken from search-result summaries; another figure of 87% circulates and the two are not reconciled. GSMA, London. Observation year 2025. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
13O-RAN Alliance (ed.), About page (founded February 2018 by AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DOCOMO and Orange; German entity since August 2018; no member count or AI statement on the page). O-RAN Alliance, Alfter. Observation year 2018. Accessed 2026-11-03.back
18Polese, M., Bonati, L., D’Oro, S., Basagni, S. and Melodia, T., Understanding O-RAN: Architecture, Interfaces, Algorithms, Security, and Research Challenges, arXiv:2202.01032, submitted 2 February 2022 (abstract page opened). arXiv, Ithaca. Observation year 2022. Accessed 2026-11-03.back

Cite this annex

Valadbaygi, S. (Ed.). (2026). Annex B: Data appendix. In Exponential Technology Report 2026: 6G, AI-RAN and Next-Generation Connectivity (Baseline Edition 2026, Report No. NR-XTECH-6G-GLOBAL-2026-BASELINE) [Draft under review]. The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI).

Every citation form of the whole report, BibTeX and RIS included, is on the edition home. Cite this report

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