Reframing the Future with NGMN’s Chairman, Laurent Leboucher
By Piotr (Peter) Pietrzyk, Managing Editor, 6GWorld.com
In the race to define 6G, one message from the global NGMN operator community stands out: this isn’t another generational leap, it must be an evolution. That’s the central theme behind the NGMN Alliance’s recently published “6G Key Messages – An Operator View”, endorsed by its Board of Directors in June 2025. 
To explore the vision behind this operator-led agenda, we spoke with Laurent Leboucher, Chairman of the NGMN Alliance Board and Group CTO at Orange. In this exclusive conversation, he reflects not only on Orange’s strategic priorities, but also on the unified stance of global MNOs, shaped by shared lessons from 5G and a resolve to make 6G work better for everyone.
“6G will not be remembered for a logo,” says Leboucher.
“It should be remembered by demand-driven compelling features brought through software upgrades and ideally compatible with existing hardware at least for most of them. And certainly not for chasing record peak speeds …”
From G to Platform: A Mindset Shift
Leboucher opens by challenging the telecom industry’s habit of framing each new generation as a hardware revolution.
“The world no longer waits ten years for a function upgrade. Most of the magic already happens in software.”
He cautions that treating 6G as a repeat of 5G risks reproducing past challenges: delayed investments, underused features, and deployments driven more by hype than need.
Instead, he — and NGMN — argue for a platform mindset, where continuous, software-defined upgrades align tightly with real-world use cases.
“We’re preparing a platform. By steering the ecosystem toward continuous software innovation, we can unlock smarter infrastructure use and deliver real, measurable value, without waiting for the next logo.”
This thinking underpins NGMN’s stance that 6G must be evolutionary, not a hard reset. Future services should build on the strengths of 5G, with modular upgrades and minimized disruption.
Spectrum Intelligence: AI for Smarter Networks
Dynamic spectrum sharing — across 4G, 5G, and eventually 6G — is no longer optional; it’s mission-critical. And AI will be the lever that turns complexity into intelligence.
“We see a path where AI-powered schedulers orchestrate traffic in real time. Networks shift from reactive to proactive — from managing resources to optimizing intelligence.”
But unlocking that potential requires data at scale.
“We’ll need large-scale training. We don’t have that yet. Vendors who serve many customers could help — ideally through a data marketplace model. Shared learning across operators will be key.”
This aligns with NGMN’s push for operational efficiency, simplification, and data-driven intelligence — moving beyond peak throughput to metrics like experience scoring, energy use, spectrum reuse, and value delivery.
AI for the Network – and Network for AI
AI’s dual role — as both an enabler and a workload — is reshaping architecture planning. As inference moves to the edge and training scales up in data centers, networks must adapt.
AI for the Network:
- Improves planning and make it more experience and value driven
- Reduces complexity and operating costs
- Enhances energy efficiency
- Enables predictive maintenance and self-healing
- Improves resilience
Network for AI:
- Supports high-throughput training environments
- Delivers low-latency inference to edge devices
Requires new uplink strategies and observability tools
The uplink increase is not yet visible in the current measurements. It will come probably in 2 years when multimodal AI will become universal and when new form factors like smart XR glasses will be rolled out.
Orange is responding with a Traffic Observatory — a system that tracks the changing nature of data flows in an AI-native environment.
“We’re moving beyond buffered video to real-time sensing and inference. That’s a fundamentally different kind of load.”
APIs and Network-as-Code
One of the strongest shifts in future networks’ architecture is the move from infrastructure to programmable platforms, enabled by open APIs and exposure frameworks. 6G releases should emphasize that shift already started in 5G.
Orange, via its LiveNet Business Unit, is already offering APIs for identity, trust, and geolocation — and is preparing to launch more, including quality-on-demand and AI-based services.
“APIs force us to expose the network as code — not just coverage. When combined with AI and edge compute, the network becomes a programmable service layer for developers.”
This directly supports NGMN’s vision of “Network-as-a-Service”, empowering innovation while ensuring operational integrity through real-time billing, slicing, and automation frameworks.
“For instance, we need to let a company buy 200 milliseconds of deterministic slice to guarantee a financial transaction, and charge them instantly.”
Standardization through initiatives like CAMARA and Open Gateway will be crucial to scale this model globally.
Turning Networks into Sensors: The Role of ISAC
Beyond connectivity, 6G opens the door to Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) — a new class of capability that transforms the network into a sensor.
This is already being explored in 3GPP Release 20 and reflects one of NGMN’s four main use case categories: Enabling Services.
Potential applications include:
- Drone and object detection using existing sub-6 GHz spectrum
- Digital twins of physical environments
- Disaster response and climate monitoring through real-time awareness
“There’s real potential here,” says Leboucher. “But we must stay use-case driven. We don’t need to boil the ocean — we need to solve what matters, step by step.”
The NGMN Vision: Simplicity, Sustainability, Value
At the close of our discussion, I asked Laurent to describe his vision for 6G in one word.
His answer was immediate: “Value.”
“It’s not hype. It’s not just about another G. If new releases don’t improve user experience, simplify operations, or reduce energy, then why are we doing it?”
That single word captures the broader ethos driving the NGMN’s position: technology must serve purpose. Innovation must be use-case led. And investment must make sense — economically, socially, and environmentally.
Final Reflections
Laurent Leboucher’s perspective, as Chairman of the NGMN Alliance, echoes the unified voice of global operators: we don’t need another reset — we need a smarter, simpler, more sustainable path forward.
NGMN’s 6G Key Messages highlight this shift:
- From monolithic G-transitions to modular evolution
- From closed systems to open, API-driven platforms
From peak speeds to meaningful service delivery - From capacity-at-all-cost to value-for-all
6G will not be defined by hype. It will be defined by outcomes.
About NGMN
The Next Generation Mobile Networks (NGMN) Alliance is a global, operator-led association representing nearly 70 members, including MNOs, vendors, and academia. Since 2006, NGMN has provided strategic guidance on next-gen mobile networks, focusing on disaggregation, sustainability, and 6G evolution. Learn more: www.ngmn.org
