“Do not design tomorrow’s smart meter around today’s radio alone. Design it for a communications path that can evolve from LTE to 5G, from RedCap to 6G, and from simple meter reading to intelligent utility infrastructure.” – MJ Martin
Introduction
6G IoT will have particular significance in Canada because our utility networks are spread across one of the largest, coldest, and most geographically difficult operating environments in the world. Smart meters in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Regina, Halifax, and remote northern communities do not face the same communications conditions. Dense urban neighbourhoods, deep basements, meter pits, rural concessions, mountains, forests, and prairie distances all create different radio challenges. For Canadian utilities, 6G will not simply be about speed. It will be about reach, resilience, cybersecurity, low power operation, and the ability to support critical infrastructure across difficult terrain.
Smart Meter Connectivity in Canada
Canadian smart metering has historically used a mix of drive by AMR, fixed network AMI, cellular IoT, licensed spectrum, unlicensed mesh, and private radio systems. Water meters often sit in basements, pits, and utility rooms where radio propagation can be difficult. Gas meters are typically outside but must operate safely and reliably through extreme cold. Electric meters have better access to power, which allows more frequent communications and more advanced grid functions, including outage detection, voltage monitoring, distributed energy resource management, and future AMI 2.0 applications.
This is where Rogers, Bell, and TELUS matter. These national carriers already provide the wide area cellular foundation that many IoT deployments rely on. Bell promotes IoT connectivity using LTE-M, LTE, 5G, and private mobile networks, with management platforms for connected devices. Rogers positions its IoT connectivity around LPWA, LTE, and 5G options, allowing businesses to choose different network classes depending on bandwidth and power requirements. TELUS promotes an IoT-dedicated network for business applications, emphasizing reliability, security, and separation from consumer mobile traffic. These carrier capabilities are directly relevant to utilities that want cellular AMI without building and maintaining their own fixed network.
The Canadian Role of Rogers, Bell, and TELUS
Rogers has already moved into 5G Advanced and RedCap in Canada. In June 2025, Rogers announced the rollout of Ericsson 5G Advanced RedCap software to support next generation IoT devices such as sensors, cameras, and monitoring equipment. This is important because RedCap is designed for devices that need more capability than low power narrowband IoT, but less complexity, cost, and power consumption than full 5G. For utilities, this may make Rogers an early Canadian reference point for advanced cellular AMI, especially for higher value grid devices, commercial meters, gateways, and field sensors.
Bell’s relevance is its enterprise IoT and private network posture. Bell describes modern LTE, 5G, and 5G+ networks as intelligent platforms for enterprise connectivity, analytics, and real time decision making. For a utility, that framing matters because AMI is increasingly becoming an operational intelligence network, not merely a meter reading system. Bell’s private mobile network messaging is also relevant where a municipality, utility, campus, port, mine, or industrial district wants dedicated network resources, stronger control, and more predictable performance than a shared public network.
TELUS is relevant because of its emphasis on managed IoT, orchestration, and priority connectivity. TELUS has promoted IoT device management capabilities, including zero touch provisioning and multi carrier orchestration, which are essential when a utility may be managing tens of thousands or millions of endpoints over many years. TELUS has also highlighted 5G IoT network slicing in public safety use cases, showing how carrier networks can separate service classes and prioritize traffic. In a future 6G environment, this kind of slicing could become important for separating routine meter reads from outage alarms, grid events, leak alerts, and emergency operational traffic.
Is RedCap Relevant?
RedCap is very relevant in Canada, but it should be applied carefully. A simple residential water meter that sends a few reads per day may not need RedCap. LTE-M, NB-IoT, proprietary AMI, or another low power solution may be more economical. However, RedCap becomes attractive when the endpoint needs better latency, more frequent reporting, stronger 5G integration, improved security, or a longer migration path into 6G.
For Canadian electric utilities, RedCap may be especially useful. Electric meters are powered devices, so they can support more active communications. They may also become edge devices that report voltage quality, outage status, tamper events, transformer loading, distributed generation behaviour, and local grid disturbances. RedCap could also serve gateways, pole top sensors, distribution automation equipment, and commercial or industrial metering points. In this sense, RedCap is not the answer for every smart meter, but it is a practical bridge between today’s LTE based utility IoT and tomorrow’s 6G utility fabric.
When Will 6G Be Ratified?
6G has not yet been fully ratified as a standard. The international framework is being developed through ITU’s IMT-2030 process, while 3GPP is expected to define the detailed technical specifications through future releases. Ericsson’s standards timeline places early 6G requirement and study work in 3GPP Releases 19 and 20, with implementable 6G specifications expected in Release 21 and commercial systems targeted around 2030. Thales describes a similar path, with requirements work from 2024 to 2026, specification development around 2027 to 2028, ITU evaluation around 2028 to 2029, and commercial deployment from 2030.
For Canadian utilities, this means 6G should not be treated as an immediate procurement requirement. It should be treated as a planning horizon. Utilities buying meters today should ask whether the communications architecture can evolve through LTE-M, 5G, RedCap, private networks, roaming arrangements, eSIM management, and eventually 6G. The risk is not that 6G arrives tomorrow. The risk is that utilities buy closed communications systems today that cannot migrate gracefully when 6G becomes commercially available.
For true 6G smart meter silicon, the practical answer is: prototype and pre-commercial 6G chips may appear around 2028, but utility-grade smart meter modules are more likely in the early 2030s, probably 2031 to 2033 for serious procurement consideration.
Why Not Immediately in 2028?
The first 6G silicon will likely be built for test platforms, network trials, phones, infrastructure, and high-value demonstration devices, not low-cost smart meters. Qualcomm has said 6G technology could be ready for commercial adoption around 2029/2030, while Ericsson expects 6G specifications to be ready by the end of 2028, enabling first commercial systems around 2030.
That means chipsets may exist before the market is ready. Silicon vendors often produce early reference designs, development boards, and engineering samples before modules become certified, carrier-approved, cost-reduced, and suitable for long-life industrial devices.
Practical Smart Meter Timeline
For utilities, the timeline should be viewed in stages.
2028 to 2030 is the likely period for early 6G silicon, lab trials, infrastructure testing, and pre-commercial devices. These will not be the type of chips a water, gas, or electric meter manufacturer would normally design into a 20-year utility endpoint.
2030 to 2032 is the likely period for early commercial 6G modules, especially for premium devices, gateways, routers, industrial equipment, and higher-value grid assets. This could include pole-top devices, data concentrators, distribution automation equipment, and electric smart grid sensors.
2031 to 2034 is the more realistic window for 6G-capable smart meter connectivity modules, assuming the standards are finalized on schedule, carriers deploy suitable network coverage, and module prices fall enough for mass AMI use.
2033 to 2036 is likely when 6G smart meter modules could become commercially mature enough for large-scale municipal or utility deployments. Smart meter markets are conservative because utilities need certified devices, stable firmware, security validation, carrier approvals, meter manufacturer integration, and long-term supply guarantees.
RedCap Comes First
Before 6G smart meter silicon becomes practical, 5G RedCap will likely be the important intermediate step. RedCap is designed for devices that need more capability than NB-IoT or LTE-M, but less complexity than full 5G. For smart metering, RedCap is especially relevant for electric meters, commercial meters, gateways, and AMI 2.0 grid-edge devices.
In Canada, this matters because Rogers, Bell, and TELUS will likely evolve utility IoT through LTE-M, NB-IoT, 5G, private wireless, RedCap, and eventually 6G. Rogers has already announced 5G Advanced RedCap capability in Canada, which makes RedCap a nearer-term technology than 6G for smart meter planning.
Best Planning Assumption
For a smart meter RFP written today, I would not specify mandatory 6G connectivity. That would be premature. Instead, I would specify:
The communications module should support a long-term migration path through LTE-M, NB-IoT, 5G, 5G RedCap, eSIM or iSIM provisioning, carrier certification, secure remote firmware updates, and future compatibility with 6G network evolution where commercially available.
That wording protects the utility without forcing an immature technology into the project.
Summary
Silicon chips for early 6G devices may appear around 2028 to 2030. Silicon chips for practical 6G smart meter modules are more likely around 2031 to 2034. Mature, cost-effective, carrier-certified, utility-grade 6G smart meter connectivity is more realistically a mid-2030s deployment option, not a late-2020s procurement requirement.
6G IoT will matter in Canada because smart metering must work across enormous geography, harsh weather, varied density, and challenging radio environments. Rogers, Bell, and TELUS will all play important roles as Canadian utilities assess cellular AMI, private networks, RedCap, network slicing, and managed IoT platforms. Rogers is already significant because of its 5G Advanced RedCap rollout. Bell brings enterprise IoT and private network capabilities. TELUS brings managed IoT, orchestration, and priority network concepts. RedCap is not the right answer for every meter, but it is highly relevant for advanced metering, electric grid devices, gateways, and higher value utility endpoints. Full 6G standardization is still several years away, with practical commercial deployment expected around 2030. The best Canadian strategy is therefore evolutionary: build AMI networks today that can move from LTE and 5G into RedCap and eventually 6G without stranding the meter, the customer, or the utility.
About the Author:
Michael Martin is the Vice President of Technology with Metercor Inc., a Smart Meter, IoT, and Smart City systems integrator based in Canada. He has more than 40 years of experience in systems design for applications that use broadband networks, optical fibre, wireless, and digital communications technologies. He is a business and technology consultant. He was a senior executive consultant for 15 years with IBM, where he worked in the GBS Global Center of Competency for Energy and Utilities and the GTS Global Center of Excellence for Energy and Utilities. He is a founding partner and President of MICAN Communications and before that was President of Comlink Systems Limited and Ensat Broadcast Services, Inc., both divisions of Cygnal Technologies Corporation (CYN: TSX).
Martin served on the Board of Directors for TeraGo Inc (TGO: TSX) and on the Board of Directors for Avante Logixx Inc. (XX: TSX.V). He has served as a Member, SCC ISO-IEC JTC 1/SC-41 – Internet of Things and related technologies, ISO – International Organization for Standardization, and as a member of the NIST SP 500-325 Fog Computing Conceptual Model, National Institute of Standards and Technology. He served on the Board of Governors of the University of Ontario Institute of Technology (UOIT) [now Ontario Tech University] and on the Board of Advisers of five different Colleges in Ontario – Centennial College, Humber College, George Brown College, Durham College, Ryerson Polytechnic University [now Toronto Metropolitan University]. For 16 years he served on the Board of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), Toronto Section.
He holds three master’s degrees – in business (MBA), communication (MA), and education (MEd). As well, he has three undergraduate diplomas and seven major certifications in business, computer programming, internetworking, project management, media, photography, and communication technology. He has completed over 80 next generation MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) [aka Micro Learning] continuous education programs in a wide variety of topics, including: Economics, Python Programming, Internet of Things, Cloud, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive systems, Blockchain, Agile, Power BI, Big Data, Design Thinking, Security, Indigenous Canada awareness, and more.
Martin in a volunteer, a photographer, a learner, a technologist, a philosophizer, and a romantic optimist.