Connectivity, computing, sensing – Qualcomm CEO outlines 6G pillars

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon used his MWC keynote to frame 6G as an evolution of today’s networks rather than a blank slate. He said connectivity will stay at the core of 6G, but its design priorities will shift as artificial intelligence becomes central to digital services and mobile devices.

According to Amon, 6G will rest on three main pillars: connectivity, distributed computing, and sensing. Connectivity covers the radio technologies that link devices and infrastructure. Distributed computing refers to spreading processing across devices, the network edge, and the cloud to support AI-heavy applications. Sensing will use the network itself to detect and interpret information from the physical environment. Together, he argued, these elements will define how 6G networks are built and what new services they can support.