One obstacle that has limited 5G adoption outside traditional telecommunications has been an underprepared ecosystem. To accelerate 6G uptake across key North American verticals, the Next G Alliance has established a Market and Applications Working Group (MAWG) dedicated to market development and vertical engagement, building relationships with end users, and mapping the ecosystem required to make 6G commercially successful across the value chain.

Members

Since its formation in June 2025, the MAWG focuses on ecosystem requirements, market needs, and the economic and technical factors that will drive 6G commercialization in North America. Its membership includes leading communications service providers, network infrastructure vendors, smart device and applications developers, and public safety organizations. The group works closely with industry partners to gather insights, evaluate emerging applications and use cases, and identify target customers and market opportunities.

The Mission

The mission of the MAWG is to clearly articulate the unique value 6G can deliver and to develop a practical blueprint that addresses ecosystem barriers, market readiness, and pathways to commercial realization for North America. The Group has prioritized verticals based on their economic impact, strategic importance to North American competitiveness, and readiness to benefit from 6G capabilities, including clear use cases that demand enhanced connectivity, measurable market size, and growth potential. The first phase of this work includes Utilities, Public Safety, and Agriculture verticals, with plans to expand into additional sectors, for example, Automotive, Smart Manufacturing, Transportation and Supply Chain, Mining, Oil, and Gas.

The Scope

For each vertical, the scope includes:

• Comprehensive analysis of use cases critical to business and operations within the vertical. First and foremost, it is important to understand key critical use cases for each vertical that are expected to utilize 6G networks. This is essential to understanding the corresponding technical requirements and the business case to justify investment in 6G technology for industry.
• Technical Requirements and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Distilling the technical requirements for vertical use cases is important to identify common needs across multiple industries. This will allow the cellular ecosystem to prioritize high-value features that will have broad applicability and larger economies of scale, while also helping inform decision-makers on what is critical for telecom standardization or may be best suited for industry-specific system integration.
• End-to-end blueprint including Proof of Concept (PoC) considerations and white papers. The MAWG will ultimately analyze the use cases and requirements to understand what needs to be proven and identify concrete actions, through PoC analysis or other activities, to build confidence in 6G-based solutions for each vertical. Once multiple vertical-specific blueprints are developed, a cross-blueprint analysis will be conducted to identify shared requirements across verticals, helping surface common 6G capabilities and enablers. This will help build realistic goals, desired outcomes, and concrete next steps to make our 6G future a reality.
• Funding landscape and academic research. The MAWG will catalog leading universities, research labs, and consortia active in wireless and vertical-specific domains (e.g., power systems, precision agriculture, emergency communications), highlighting key labs, recent publications, testbeds, and industry partnerships.
• Workshops and seminars. It will evaluate hosting workshops, presentations, or other seminars to communicate our results to the broader stakeholder community and to help identify next steps to further 6G’s market readiness in each vertical.

The MAWG is collaborating with academia and industry leaders through external speaker sessions to broaden perspectives, exchange ideas, and deepen its understanding of challenges and opportunities for North America.

Building the 6G Future

As it advances its vertical analyses, the Next G Alliance MAWG remains committed to fostering collaboration, driving innovation, and aligning diverse stakeholders toward a shared 6G vision. By bridging industry insights with academic research and transforming ideas into actionable blueprints, the goal is to ensure that North America not only leads in 6G technology adoption but also reaps the economic and societal benefits it promises. The journey to 6G is a collective endeavor. Together, we are building the foundation for a connected future that empowers every sector and community.