At its June 2026 plenary in Singapore, 3GPP approved the timeline for Release 21 — the mobile industry’s first normative 6G standard. Documented in RP-260868, SP-260595 and CP-261259, the agreement gives operators, chipmakers and device vendors a fixed set of milestones to plan around, ending years of uncertainty about when 6G would actually arrive.
A Stable, End-to-End Roadmap
The schedule agreed at TSGs#112 is now locked in:
- March 2027 — Release 21 package approval and Stage-1 (requirements) freeze
- June 2028 — Stage-2 freeze (with an 80% completion checkpoint in March 2028)
- December 2028 — Stage-3 functional freeze, the point at which the first 6G standard is effectively complete
- March 2029 — ASN.1 / OpenAPI freeze, finalizing the encodings
5G-Advanced and 6G in a Single Release
Release 21 is deliberately a dual-track release. It continues 5G-Advanced specification work to full maturity while delivering the first normative 6G features. Two study items anchor the work: TR 22.870 (“6G Use Cases and Service Requirements”), approved as the Stage-1 anchor, and TR 38.914 (“6G Scenarios and Requirements”), approved by TSG RAN in June 2026.
What It Means for Buyers
For businesses and consumers investing in connectivity today, the message is reassuring. The 5G equipment you deploy now — including the 5G and 5G-Advanced routers and hotspots we sell — sits on a foundation that evolves smoothly into 6G rather than being replaced wholesale. Roadmaps can be matched to a published calendar, lowering the risk of premature or stranded investment.