Ericsson, Nokia and Fraunhofer HHI Team Up to set the video codec standard for 6G

Press Release, 30 October

Leading European tech firms Ericsson, Nokia and research powerhouse Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute (HHI) have announced a strategic collaboration aimed at defining the next-generation video coding standard for the upcoming 6G era. The partnership combines their complementary strengths in mobile connectivity, multimedia innovation and video-compression research to build a codec geared for immersive media and ultra-high-efficiency video across mobile, industrial and automotive contexts.

In a joint proof-of-concept demonstration, the trio presented a new video codec that reportedly outperforms existing standards such as H.264/AVC, H.265/HEVC and H.266/VVC — offering markedly better compression efficiency without significantly raising complexity, while also improving energy-scalability. Their submission has already received positive evaluation from the key governing bodies ITU‑T (Video Coding Experts Group) and ISO/IEC (MPEG) — signalling the first real step toward forming the coding standard that will underpin media delivery in the 2030s.

With commercial 6G networks expected in the early 2030s, this video-coding standard is set to play a critical role across streaming, gaming, immersive AR/VR, automotive systems and machine-to-machine communications. The alliance emphasises that this initiative strengthens Europe’s role in global standardisation and enables connected industries to scale media-rich applications efficiently and sustainably.

Source: Nokia Corporation | Nokia