Nº02·June 2026
Open RAN in Practice: What the 2026 Deployments Actually Tell Us
Key finding — Top-5 RAN vendors held 96% of the market in 1Q–3Q 2025, up from 95% (Dell'Oro)
From our research desk
Telecom whitepapers, audited against the source.
We don't just teach 5G — we research it. Each whitepaper is an original technical analysis by 5G/6G Academy Research, checked against primary 3GPP, ITU and operator sources. Download the full paper as a PDF — or skim the web primer first. All free.
RAN
6 papers
Nº04·June 2026
The AI-Native RAN: What's Standardized, What's Deployed
Key finding — 3GPP standardized just three air-interface AI use cases — only beam prediction and positioning are normative (Rel-19)
Nº05·June 2026
URLLC Reality Check: The Millisecond, Audited
Key finding — No documented commercial public 1 ms / 99.999% service as of June 2026
Nº07·June 2026
The Sleeping Network: Energy Savings from the Spec Sheet to the Field
Key finding — A radio in micro sleep still draws ~20% of active-downlink power (TR 38.864)
Nº08·June 2026
5G From Orbit: NTN Engineering and the Direct-to-Device Race
Key finding — 541.46 ms — max round trip on a transparent GEO path (3GPP TR 38.821)
Nº09·June 2026
5G-Advanced, Sorted: A Planner's Field Guide to Rel-18 and Rel-19
Key finding — 11 networks branded 5G-Advanced, 35 operators investing (GSA-reported, Apr 2026)
Core & Security
3 papers
Nº03·June 2026
Private 5G: A Deployment Guide
Key finding — 6,500 private LTE/5G networks live worldwide by end-2025, up from 4,700 (Berg Insight)
Nº06·June 2026
5G Security: What Got Fixed, What Got Deferred
Key finding — Nine 256-bit algorithm specs published, yet zero appear in TS 33.501 (per grep)
Nº10·June 2026
Network APIs: The Plumbing, the Promise, and the P&L
Key finding — 94% of 2024 network-API revenue was China (per the paper)
Spectrum & Devices
1 paper
Nº11·June 2026
Right-Sized 5G: The Economics of a Smaller Radio
Key finding — Four RedCap cuts remove ~67% of a reference NR device's cost (3GPP TR 38.875)
6G
1 paper
Nº12·June 2026
The Spectrum Decision: 6G, IMT-2030 and the Road to WRC-27
Key finding — IMT-2030 (ITU-R M.2160) defines 6 usage scenarios and 15 capabilities
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