Analyst(s): Tom Hollingsworth
Publication Date: September 17, 2026
Samsung and Verizon used an existing 5G network to generate crowd-density heatmaps at a live soccer fan event. The trial demonstrates a practical use for network sensing, with its commercial value now dependent on showing measurable benefits for venue operations.
What Is Covered in This Article:
- Samsung and Verizon’s crowd-sensing trial on virtualized 5G infrastructure.
- The role of software updates and Samsung’s Network in a Server platform.
- Operational applications and the demonstration’s privacy boundaries.
- Competing sensing initiatives and Verizon’s broader 6G testing program.
The News: Samsung and Verizon announced on September 14, 2026, that they completed an Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) trial at an international soccer fan event in Dallas. One 5G base station used 40 MHz of CBRS spectrum and transmissions from six Samsung Galaxy smartphones to generate near-real-time crowd-density heatmaps.
Samsung integrated its commercial virtualized radio access network (vRAN), virtualized core, and ISAC application on its Network in a Server (NIS) platform. The trial used existing 5G infrastructure to sense crowd movements, without adding dedicated cameras or radar equipment.
Can Samsung and Verizon Make Network Sensing Useful for Venues?
Analyst Take: Samsung and Verizon have given network sensing a useful starting point: showing venue operators where crowds are forming during a live event. Running that application on the existing 5G infrastructure makes the demonstration relevant to current network investment decisions. The immediate task is to establish how reliably that visibility supports venue operations, since the announcement does not quantify improvements in waiting times, resource allocation, or safety.
Software Updates Add a Working Sensing Application
Samsung incorporated ISAC into vRAN, and core updates are already planned to increase network capacity at the event. Its NIS platform brought network functions and accelerated computing together on one server, processing radio-channel variations captured through Verizon’s Cell-on-Wheels deployment. That setup gives substance to the companies’ argument for software-driven infrastructure, because they introduced a new function on the hardware platform already supporting the network. Operators considering the approach should ask what computing capacity and software changes their own deployments would require. The trial makes a credible case for extending this platform through software, while leaving the requirements for wider deployment unresolved.
Crowd Visibility Must Support Better Decisions
A crowd-density heatmap gives venue teams a direct view of where people are gathering, with proposed applications ranging from allocating staff to directing visitors toward less congested facilities. Samsung also identified early recognition of overcrowding as a public-safety application, although the trial disclosed no measured improvement in incident prevention or response. For venue buyers, the useful next test is whether staff can act on that information quickly enough to improve the flow of people through a live event. The companies set an important boundary around the demonstration by stating that it measured aggregate crowd density without identifying individual users or objects or collecting their identities. The operational case will rest on useful, timely crowd information and evidence that acting on it improves event management.
Other Trials Give Buyers More to Compare
Verizon’s Qualcomm trial in San Diego demonstrated simultaneous sensing and communications, tracking a drone and ground vehicles while maintaining uninterrupted high-speed 5G Standalone service to a phone user. It used four synchronized transmission and reception points and 100 to 400 MHz of millimeter-wave spectrum, a different configuration from the Dallas crowd-sensing deployment. AT&T and Ericsson have also tested 5G drone detection, while Cohere Technologies received a $28 million contract to develop an ISAC-supporting prototype for continuous air and ground monitoring. Xfinity’s home Wi-Fi motion-detection offering adds a separate example of wireless sensing, though its purpose and deployment differ from these cellular applications. Buyers should compare what each system demonstrably senses and the infrastructure it requires before treating these projects as equivalent capabilities.
Verizon Gives Its 6G Program Specific Applications
Verizon’s nine new forum members add cloud, computing, security, and testing expertise to a group whose founding participants include Samsung, Ericsson, Nokia, Meta, and Qualcomm Technologies. AWS, Cisco, Intel, Keysight Technologies, MediaTek, NVIDIA, Palo Alto Networks, Rohde & Schwarz, and VIAVI Solutions join a program that includes spectrum testing and alignment with 3GPP. Alongside sensing, Verizon demonstrated an AI Sports Companion prototype using Meta AI glasses, its edge network, NVIDIA DGX Spark, a locally optimized small language model, and SportsDataIO statistics to answer spoken sports questions. The carrier connects that work to low-latency and more balanced uplink-downlink requirements, with its Los Angeles 6G Lab and the 2028 Summer Olympics serving as planned testing grounds. These applications give the program concrete tasks to validate, and their results should carry more weight than the size of the partner roster.
What to Watch:
- Subsequent trials should disclose sensing accuracy, coverage, refresh speed, and computing requirements to help operators assess deployment needs.
- Venue tests that measure queue times, staffing decisions, or overcrowding responses would provide evidence for the proposed operational benefits.
- Further crowd-sensing deployments should preserve the stated distinction between measuring density and identifying individuals.
- Results from competing sensing projects will allow closer comparisons across spectrum, equipment configurations, and applications.
- Verizon’s Los Angeles program will test how its sensing and edge AI prototypes perform as preparations advance toward the 2028 Olympics.
Read Samsung’s full announcement of its crowd-sensing trial with Verizon on the company website.
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