Ericsson partners with Murata and Sumitomo Electric for 6G and AI infrastructure

Ericsson has entered into individual agreements with Murata Manufacturing and Sumitomo Electric Industries to advance next-generation mobile network infrastructure. Utilizing Ericsson’s new R&D center in Yokohama, the collaborations will focus on technical development for the 6G and AI eras, specifically aiming to improve network performance and product energy efficiency through joint technical evaluations and proof-of-concept projects.

At the Ericsson Forum 2026, company leadership highlighted the shifting requirements of the AI era, noting a projected surge in uplink traffic. Ericsson predicts that uplink traffic will grow approximately three times every five years, outpacing the two-fold growth expected for downlink traffic. To meet the demands of AI applications—such as autonomous industrial robots requiring ultra-low latency—Ericsson is focusing on AI-RAN (Radio Access Network) technology and custom semiconductor designs to optimize power consumption and hardware size.

In Japan, Ericsson has already demonstrated the effectiveness of AI-native link adaptation on SoftBank’s commercial 5G network, reporting improvements in spectral efficiency and user throughput. The company continues to collaborate with major Japanese carriers, including NTT Docomo and KDDI, to develop high-performance, energy-efficient computing and automated base station settings.