New Delhi — India should prioritize AI-ready networks, faster enterprise digitization, greater trust in digital services and open, interoperable global standards for 6G as it enters the next phase of its digital development, according to the GSMA.
The mobile industry group said India must turn its vast mobile connectivity footprint into greater economic value while making digital trust a foundation of its expanding digital economy.
“India has demonstrated that it can deliver digital scale. The opportunity now is to turn that scale into innovation, enterprise growth and trusted digital services,” GSMA Director General Vivek Badrinath said.
Badrinath said India’s next decade will be shaped not simply by how many people are connected, but by the economic and social outcomes generated by that connectivity. He added that digital trust should be viewed as infrastructure for growth rather than merely as a safeguard.
India has about 1.2 billion active mobile connections and nearly 450 million 5G connections, giving the country one of the world’s largest mobile connectivity footprints, according to the GSMA.
The organization called for that connectivity to be translated into AI-ready infrastructure, stronger enterprise productivity and trusted digital services, backed by a sustainable environment for investment.
“India’s AI ambitions will require high capacity, secure, resilient and increasingly intelligent networks. AI can also improve network planning, energy efficiency, service assurance, cybersecurity and fraud detection,” the GSMA said.
The group said technologies including fixed wireless access, private networks, cloud connectivity, network APIs and cybersecurity services could help businesses accelerate digitization and create new opportunities for growth.
As India’s digital economy expands, secure authentication, fraud prevention and privacy-preserving network intelligence will also become increasingly important, the GSMA said.
Mobile operators and industry partners across the Asia-Pacific region, including the Bharat 6G Alliance, have also signed the GSMA’s Tokyo Accord, which supports open, interoperable and trusted digital ecosystems for the 6G era. (Source: IANS)
