6G-SANDBOX
6G-SANDBOX is a Horizon Europe SNS JU research consortium of 17 partners across 8 countries operating a pan-European 6G experimentation facility with four pilot sites (Athens, Berlin, Malaga, Oulu), offering open Trial Networks, the 6G-SANDBOX Toolkit, and APIs to third-party experimenters and other SNS projects.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2023
- HeadquartersBrussels, Belgium
- Headcount—
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
6G-SANDBOX firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- 6G-SANDBOX
- Legal name
- 6G-SANDBOX SNS HE PROJECT
- Website
- https://6g-sandbox.eu
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2023
- Operating status
- Operating
- Short description
- 6G-SANDBOX is a Horizon Europe SNS JU research consortium of 17 partners across 8 countries operating a pan-European 6G experimentation facility with four pilot sites (Athens, Berlin, Malaga, Oulu), offering open Trial Networks, the 6G-SANDBOX Toolkit, and APIs to third-party experimenters and other SNS projects.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
6G-SANDBOX industry classification
Industry- Product category
- 6G Experimentation Platform
- NAICS
- Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Computer Systems Design and Related Services (5415), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Testing Laboratories (8734), Services-Computer Integrated Systems Design (7373)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Virtualized RAN & Open RAN (vRAN/O-RAN) (HDAFANAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- NFV Testing, Validation & Assurance (HDAFANAJ), Virtualized EPC/5GC Core (vEPC/v5GC) (HDAFANAD), Experiment Tracking, Metadata & Model Registry (HDAAABAC)
Keywords
Where 6G-SANDBOX is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Brussels
- HQ country
- Belgium
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices5 records
Markets served
6G-SANDBOX business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- EU Research Grant Funding: 6G-SANDBOX is a Horizon Europe research project funded under the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU). The project receives EU funding through Grant Agreement No 101096328. As a research infrastructure, the project does not generate commercial revenue. The facility is offered openly to third parties, SNS JU projects, and external organizations including industry, SMEs, research institutions, and academia for experimentation purposes.
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels12 records
6G-SANDBOX product offering
Product offeringCore offering
6G-SANDBOX operates a pan-European modular 6G experimentation facility composed of distributed Trial Networks with digital and physical nodes across four pilot sites in Athens, Berlin, Malaga, and Oulu. The facility delivers an ORAN-driven end-to-end physical connectivity infrastructure, a Resource Management Framework using an Infrastructure-as-Code approach, and an API-based Automated Experimentation Lifecycle Framework for third-party experimenters to validate 6G KPIs and KVIs.
Product overview
6G-SANDBOX is a European research project (HORIZON-JU-SNS-2022-STREAM-C-01-01, 36 months, Grant Agreement No 101096328) that provides a pan-European modular 6G experimentation facility. The platform is built around Trial Networks — fully configurable, manageable, and controlled end-to-end networks composed of digital and physical nodes distributed across four pilot sites in Malaga, Athens, Berlin, and Oulu. The core offerings include the 6G-SANDBOX Toolkit (automated experimentation toolbox), the 6G-SANDBOX Marketplace (appliance repository), the O-RAN-driven end-to-end physical connectivity infrastructure, a Resource Management Framework (Infrastructure as Code approach), and an API-based Automated Experimentation Lifecycle Framework. All developments and APIs are released through an open repository — the European 6G Library — on GitHub. Third-party access is enabled through Open Calls and a Third Party Engagement framework.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- 6G-SANDBOX Experimentation Facility A pan-European modular facility for 6G technology and research validation, built on Trial Networks composed of digital and physical nodes distributed across four pilot sites in Malaga, Athens, Berlin, and Oulu. The facility serves third-party experimenters from academia, industry, SMEs, and SNS JU projects for 6G experimentation and validation.
- 6G-SANDBOX Toolkit A rich and extensible toolbox providing automated experimentation capabilities for third parties and open call experimenters to perform automated experiments on 6G-SANDBOX trial networks.
- 6G-SANDBOX Marketplace An online marketplace providing access to pre-built appliances and tools for the 6G-SANDBOX experimentation platform, enabling experimenters to quickly deploy and configure trial network components.
- European 6G Library An open repository of 6G developments and APIs released by the project on GitHub, intended to move contributions and lessons learned beyond project borders and serve as a European 6G library.
Quantifiable outcome
- Target: results for at least 2 KPIs for each KPI family validated through facility experiments
- +4 more outcomes
Companies that use 6G-SANDBOX
Customer profileNamed customers3 records
Segments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
6G-SANDBOX technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability7 records
Feature6 records
6G-SANDBOX partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- European Space Agency (ESA)core6G-SANDBOX signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with ESA for collaboration on non-terrestrial networks (NTN) and 6G integration. ESA and SNS JU signed a joint Memorandum of Intent on 16 October 2025. 6G-SANDBOX presented the collaboration at EuCNC 2023 Workshop 7 and participates in the SNS JU and ESA joint workshop '6G-LINO: from Lab Validation to Real-World NTN Trials'. The collaboration focuses on TN/NTN integration, multi-connectivity, and real-world non-terrestrial network trials.
- Keysight TechnologiescoreKeysight serves as the Project Coordinator of 6G-SANDBOX. The company coordinates the pan-European 6G testbed and contributes test and measurement expertise, simulation capabilities, and digital twin solutions for satellite network deployment in the non-terrestrial networks paradigm. Michael Dieudonné from Keysight is the Project Coordinator, and Keysight contributed presentations on digital twins and NTN studies.
- University of Malaga (UMA)coreUniversity of Malaga serves as the Technical Manager of 6G-SANDBOX, led by Pedro Merino Gomez. UMA operates the Malaga pilot site and presented NTN/TN integration efforts with focus on multi-connectivity. The university presented the paper 'On-demand Trial Networks over 6G-SANDBOX infrastructure' at EuCNC 2024.
- NCSR DemokritoscoreNCSR Demokritos operates the Athens pilot site of 6G-SANDBOX and presented the B5G Athens Experimentation Platform at IEEE CAMAD 2024. Dr. Harilaos Koumaras chairs the IEEE CAMAD 2024 workshop co-organised by 6G-SANDBOX. The partner also organised the '58th Summer School' and Demo Common Days events.
- TelefonicacoreTelefonica operates the Malaga-based testbed and presented 6G-SANDBOX and ESA collaboration at EuCNC 2023. David Artuñedo from Telefonica delivered presentations on NTN-6G activities and Trial Network Definition. Telefonica's 6G-SANDBOX testbed architecture is based on OpenNebula.
- Nokia / University of OulucoreNokia and University of Oulu operate the Oulu pilot site. Prof. Ari Pouttu from University of Oulu presented 6G-SANDBOX at EuCNC & 6G Summit 2024 Workshop 1. Nokia won a Best Demo Award related to project activities.
- OpenNebulacoreOpenNebula provides the cloud infrastructure powering 6G-SANDBOX's platforms. OpenNebula and 6G-SANDBOX co-organised TechDay Madrid (May 2023) on open source for Europe's next-gen Edge Cloud, and participated together at the OpenNebula Conference 2023 with a special session on 'Leveraging NFV capabilities for Telco Edge Clouds'.
- Fraunhofer FOKUS / IS-WirelesscoreFraunhofer FOKUS and IS-Wireless operate the Berlin pilot site of 6G-SANDBOX. IS-Wireless presented 'Edge resources management for disaggregated open RAN 6G networks' at EuCNC 2023 Workshop 2 and presented a paper on 5G demonstration with ML-Enabled Scaling at IEEE GLOBECOM 2024.
- LenovocoreLenovo is a consortium partner represented by Dr. Apostolis Salkintzis, who presented 6G-SANDBOX at ETSI Research Conference (February 2023) and authored papers on multi-connectivity enhancements for 6G-SANDBOX.
- Eurescom GmbHcoreEurescom GmbH presented 6G-SANDBOX work at the 1st International Workshop on Open Research Infrastructures and Toolkits for 5G/6G R&D (OpenRit 6G) in Cape Town, South Africa, on the stimulation of evolution of test and experimentation infrastructures.
- FOGUS, INFOLYSiS, OWO, Cosmote, ICTficial Oy, Queen's University Belfast (QUB)minorAdditional consortium partners contributing to specific aspects of the 6G-SANDBOX facility, including platform development, integration, and research activities across the four pilot sites.
- 5G PPP / SNS JU Ecosystemcore6G-SANDBOX is part of the SNS JU ecosystem alongside 35+ other SNS JU projects. The project collaborates with other projects including HEXA-X-II, 6G-NTN, ETHER, 5G-STARDUST, EVOLVED-5G, and aerOS on NTN workshops, cloud continuum topics, and joint publications. 6G-SANDBOX contributes to SNS JU Working Groups including Architecture WG, Test Measurement and Validation WG, and participates in the Digital Innovation Hubs (DIH) network.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
6G-SANDBOX competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Nokia Bell Labs: Nokia operates the Oulu pilot site of 6G-SANDBOX alongside University of Oulu and leads global 6G research through Bell Labs. Comparable as a much larger industrial player investing in 6G architecture, KPIs, and validation, with overlapping research themes.
- Keysight Technologies: Global test-and-measurement incumbent that serves as Project Coordinator of 6G-SANDBOX and provides digital twin, simulation, and NTN expertise. Comparable because it brings the same industrial-grade T&M approach to 6G validation at a much broader commercial scale.
Others
- European Space Agency (ESA): ESA is the NTN collaboration partner of 6G-SANDBOX via MoU and joint workshops. Comparable as an adjacent public-sector actor enabling satellite-terrestrial 6G integration rather than a direct competitor.
Emerging players
- OpenNebula: Open-source cloud management platform that powers 6G-SANDBOX's Telco Edge Cloud infrastructure and co-organises TechDays with the project. Comparable as an emerging but established player in edge-cloud orchestration for NFV/6G testbeds.
Direct peers
- 5G-EVE: Earlier European 5G facility project also cited by 6G-SANDBOX as a template for 6G-era experimentation. Comparable in offering an inter-connected European platform for vertical-industry trials and KPIs/KVIs benchmarking.
- HEXA-X-II: European SNS JU 6G flagship research project focused on 6G system design, Hexa-X-II is the closest peer in the 6G research ecosystem and overlaps with 6G-SANDBOX in addressing 6G architecture and experimentation. Both projects collaborate within the SNS JU umbrella on architecture work and joint workshops.
- ETHER (SNS JU project): SNS JU Stream C sibling project with which 6G-SANDBOX collaborates on cloud continuum topics and joint publications. Operates in the same European 6G experimentation ecosystem with overlapping infrastructure ambitions.
- 5G-VINNI: Predecessor Horizon 2020 pan-European 5G validation infrastructure cited by 6G-SANDBOX as one of the facilities whose 5G paradigm informed its design. Comparable in its multi-site European footprint and end-to-end service validation approach.
- 5GENESIS: Predecessor pan-European 5G/6G experimentation facility explicitly referenced by 6G-SANDBOX as a model for the 6G paradigm. Operates a distributed facility structure with multiple sites, addressing a similar open-call-driven third-party experimentation model.
- 6G-NTN: SNS JU project developing non-terrestrial network solutions for 6G, directly comparable to 6G-SANDBOX's NTN trial capabilities at the Malaga site and its ESA MoU. The two projects co-organise NTN convergence workshops and target the same TN/NTN integration use cases.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
6G-SANDBOX social profiles
Digital presence6G-SANDBOX financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
6G-SANDBOX leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
6G-SANDBOX funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
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6G-SANDBOX M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
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Frequently asked questions about 6G-SANDBOX
What does 6G-SANDBOX do?
6G-SANDBOX operates a pan-European modular 6G experimentation facility composed of distributed Trial Networks with digital and physical nodes across four pilot sites in Athens, Berlin, Malaga, and Oulu. The facility delivers an ORAN-driven end-to-end physical connectivity infrastructure, a Resource Management Framework using an Infrastructure-as-Code approach, and an API-based Automated Experimentation Lifecycle Framework for third-party experimenters to validate 6G KPIs and KVIs.
Is 6G-SANDBOX a public or private company?
6G-SANDBOX is a private company. It is classified as state government owned and is currently operating.
When was 6G-SANDBOX founded?
6G-SANDBOX was founded in 2023.
Where is 6G-SANDBOX based?
6G-SANDBOX is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, in the Europe region.
How does 6G-SANDBOX make money?
One revenue line is on record: EU Research Grant Funding.
Who are 6G-SANDBOX's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Nokia Bell Labs and Keysight Technologies. European Space Agency (ESA) is listed as an others. OpenNebula is listed as an emerging player. Direct peers are 5G-EVE, HEXA-X-II, ETHER (SNS JU project), 5G-VINNI, 5GENESIS and 6G-NTN.
Does 6G-SANDBOX have an API?
Yes. 6G-SANDBOX provides an API-based experimentation lifecycle framework for automated experimentation on trial networks, tailored to 6G KPIs and KVIs. The API framework is used for interaction with all experimenters from open calls. All 6G software components are openly released following an 'Infrastructure as Code' approach. Developer documentation is at marketplace.mobilesandbox.cloud:9443/appliance.
What industry is 6G-SANDBOX in?
6G-SANDBOX's product category is 6G Experimentation Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDAFANAF, Virtualized RAN & Open RAN (vRAN/O-RAN), with a secondary code of HDAFANAJ, NFV Testing, Validation & Assurance. Its NAICS code is 5417 and its SIC code is 8734.