The Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones (Subtel, Chile's telecommunications undersecretariat) and the company OnLab signed an agreement to test the adoption of 6G networks in Chile, with support from the Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (Corfo, the state economic development agency), according to Emol. The signing took place during the Summit País Digital 2026.
6G is the sixth generation of mobile networks, the successor to the 5G that companies are currently rolling out in the country. If 5G is a wider highway for data, 6G aims to be an even faster one with less delay. For now it is a technology still in development. The agreement covers tests and pilots, not a service available for your phone.
The agreement runs for two years. According to the outlet, it includes controlled test environments, a kind of closed laboratory, to develop pilots with 5G, 5.5G (an intermediate, improved version of 5G) and 6G technologies. These pilots will incorporate artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and applied robotics.
The real-world use cases will focus on mining, security, and the forestry and agricultural industries. The report does not specify what will be tested in each sector or at which sites or regions the pilots will take place.
The subsecretaria de Telecomunicaciones (telecommunications undersecretary), Romina Garrido, framed the agreement within the agenda to turn Chile into a regional digital center. "We want to consolidate Chile as the digital hub of Latin America and boost the digital economy," she said. She added that they aim to translate infrastructure into productivity for mining, security, logistics, health, ports and agriculture.
Garrido said the tests will serve to "generate technical evidence and make the best public policy decisions." Put simply, the State wants to see the technology working before setting rules for it.
The agreement also includes technical advice and governance, with milestones combining OnLab's technological expertise with Subtel's regulatory perspective. This is where the exchange of practices on efficient use of spectrum comes in: spectrum is the set of frequencies over which wireless signals travel, a limited resource allocated by the State.
Other focus areas are industrial cybersecurity and the strengthening of networks and critical infrastructure. The agreement also provides for working groups, workshops, seminars and technical forums on future networks.
Rolando Martínez, executive director of OnLab, said the agreement makes it possible to "put technology at the service of industry" and bring the pilots to key sectors. Fernando Hentzschel, Corfo's manager of Technological Capabilities, linked it to Corfo's Red de Centros Tecnológicos (network of technology centers), which seeks to give companies and public institutions access to test environments to validate solutions and bring them to market.
The source does not report investment amounts or a timeline for the first pilots. The agreement is in effect for two years from its signing.
