Silicon Austria Labs (SAL) opened its 5G\/6G testbed on November 4, 2026, at the LIT Factory on the campus of Johannes Kepler University Linz. Companies of all sizes can develop and test new networking technologies there under real-world production conditions.<\/p>\n
The testbed was unveiled as part of the ESBS Austria Conference 2026. The conference brings together the Austrian electronics, semiconductor, and software communities and focused this year on Physical AI\u2014that is, the integration of artificial intelligence into machines, production facilities, and vehicles. Federal Minister Peter Hanke, Governor Thomas Stelzer, State Councilor for Economic Affairs and Research Markus Achleitner, and SAL Managing Director Isabel Tausendsch\u00f6n jointly inaugurated the new infrastructure.<\/p>\n
SAL operates a private 5G standalone campus network across approximately 1,600 square meters of hall space. Industrial robots, autonomous mobile robot systems, high-resolution cameras, UWB positioning systems, and extensive measurement technology complement the infrastructure. This allows reliability, wireless coverage, and response times to be tested and optimized under real production conditions. Commercial and open network technologies run in parallel. This demonstrates which more cost-effective solutions also work for small and medium-sized enterprises.<\/p>\n
\u201cA testbed thrives on collaboration between companies that need new solutions and the research that makes them possible. Turning excellent research into concrete results for our industry partners is in Silicon Austria Labs\u2019 DNA. Linz is the right place for this, because here, research and industry don\u2019t just work side by side\u2014they work together,\u201d says Dr. Isabel Tausendsch\u00f6n, Commercial Managing Director of Silicon Austria Labs GmbH<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The LIT Factory is home to Austria\u2019s only industrial test bed where millimeter-wave technologies above 24 gigahertz are deployed under real production conditions. These frequency ranges are considered key to future 6G networks because they enable significantly higher data rates and minimal latency. SAL is already researching other building blocks for the next generation of mobile communications and is gradually integrating them. These include AI-supported radio models, intelligent network control, new security concepts, and the development of its own 6G radio chips.<\/p>\n For small and medium-sized enterprises in particular, the testbed lowers the barrier to entry for new networking technologies. Together with experts from SAL, companies develop new applications and bring them to market readiness. SAL co-financing of up to 50 percent, as well as grants through the European Digital Innovation Hubs Network and the Austrian Chips Competence Center (ATC3), facilitate access.<\/p>\n \u201cThe testbed strengthens the exchange between research and industry and thus boosts the innovative power of Upper Austria as a business location. It promotes collaboration between academia and businesses, accelerates the adoption of new technologies in companies, and makes the region even more attractive to international companies, research projects, and investments,\u201d said Provincial Councilor Landesrat Markus Achleitner<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing here today is industrial policy you can actually touch. Strategies are born on paper, but what matters is whether they make their way into businesses. With the 5G\/6G testbed, our companies gain access to technologies before they hit the market,\u201d said Innovation Minister Peter Hanke.<\/strong><\/p>\n For the state of Upper Austria, the testbed represents the next step in its AI excellence strategy. \u201cThe factory of the future won\u2019t just emerge at some point in the future\u2014it\u2019s already being developed today in Upper Austria. What is being researched and tested here in Linz can be put to use in our factories tomorrow,\u201d said Governor Thomas Stelzer.<\/strong>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Silicon Austria Labs (SAL) hat am 4. November 2026 in der LIT Factory am Campus der Johannes Kepler Universit\u00e4t Linz sein 5G\/6G-Testbed er\u00f6ffnet. Unternehmen jeder Gr\u00f6\u00dfe k\u00f6nnen dort neue Vernetzungstechnologien unter realen Produktionsbedingungen entwickeln und erproben. Vorgestellt wurde das Testbed im Rahmen der ESBS Austria Conference 2026. Die Konferenz bringt die \u00f6sterreichische Elektronik-, Halbleiter- und […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8668,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"isevent":false,"location":"","datum":"","enddatum":"","uhrzeit_wysiwyg":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8662"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8671,"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662\/revisions\/8671"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/silicon-austria-labs.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Millimeter Waves as a Building Block for 6G<\/h3>\n
Easy Entry for SMEs<\/h3>\n
Industrial Policy You Can Touch<\/h3>\n