As the dust settles around India’s momentous 5G rollout, already, the gear is shifting to the next horizon 6G. The sixth generation of mobile technology promises speeds as high as 100 times faster than what 5G can offer, latency in microseconds, and seamlessly connected billions of devices. However, what gets frequently lost in the hype around futuristic applications are questions about infrastructure. Without the necessary physical and digital infrastructure in place, 6G will remain an academic exercise, rather than a transformative national phenomenon.
India has already undertaken some important early steps. In 2023, the government announced its India 6G Vision, announced testbeds, and innovation labs, and encouraged collaboration between industry and academia. However, preparing for 6G is not only research; it’s about establishing dense network physical and digital infrastructure, energy efficient edge compute infrastructure, and building an indigenous hardware ecosystem to make this technology a reality.
Shifting Focus: From Technology to Infrastructure
Unlike the jump from 4G to 5G, which centered on consumer experience (video streaming, mobile broadband), 6G is likely to rely on entire digital economies—autonomous vehicles, real-time holograms, precision health care, hyper-connected smart factories. All of these use cases demand not just high-speed connectivity, but ultra-reliable, low-latency, and sustainable infrastructure. For India, still struggling with fibre gaps, unevenly rural coverage, and tower densification challenges, this movement will require an infrastructure play that is proactive rather than reactive to catch up.
Dense Backhaul Networks
One of the greatest enablers of 6G will be high-capacity backhaul, the invisible highways that carry all data from multiple base stations to the core network.
• Fiberisation: India currently has approximately 38–40% of their telecom towers fiberised, where the global best practice is in the 70–80% range. Given that in 6G, terabit-level traffic per tower is expected, this number will need to grow quickly.
• Satellite-terrestrial convergence: In 6G, satellite internet will be better integrated with terrestrial networks instead of acting merely as complement. Low earth orbit (LEO) constellations, like Starlink or OneWeb, will help bridge the rural backhaul gaps in India.
The amount of investment in the integration of fibre, microwave and satellite infrastructure is unavoidable and must happen as part of a future 6G backbone.
Small Cells Densification and Smarter Towers
6G will operate at higher frequency bands which will include both millimeter and terahertz wave spectrum. These frequency bands carry tremendous amounts of data but have limited propagation distances and difficult propagation through buildings. Thus, India will require:
• Small cell densification: Achieved through thousands of short-range, low-power base stations located on street poles, rooftops, and around public infrastructure.
• Rooftop sharing frameworks: Provide inverse regulatory measures combined with city incentives to facilitate small cells in urban clusters.
• Tower upgrades: Current macro towers must be upgraded to operate at those higher frequencies, provide higher throughput with massive MIMO antenna systems, and support AI-driven optimizations.
Without densification of the network infrastructure, we will never be able to deliver on a fraction of the remarkable promises associated with 6G and will find ourselves in a “decision paralysis” reality.
The Rise of Edge Computing and Distributed Data Centers
6G will not only mean faster downloads, it is about computing closer to the user. Autonomous vehicles, AR/VR applications, or industrial robots cannot wait for the data to leave and then return from far off data centres.
• Edge data centres that are distributed, not just in tier-1 cities, but literally all of India’s tier-2 and -3 cities.
• Integration with national data centre parks that will allow other cloud providers to provide scalable resources to edge data centres within low-latency constraints.
• Investment in the fibre routes and power supply to far edge data centres, will be as important as spectrum allocation.
This will simultaneously assist with regional development, ensuring that India’s small cities are not left behind in a digital economy.
Building India’s Own Semiconductor and Hardware Ecosystem
India’s reliance on imported telecom equipment and chips brings with it a strategic disadvantage to the country. The number of components in hardware (antennas, AI chips, sensor) increases multi-fold in 6G.
• India’s government’s semiconductor incentive schemes are an important step in the right direction, but uptakes and ecosystem development with it appears very slow.
• On the topic of chips, when it comes to 6G, India will need clues (many clues) not just chip fabs but also sourcing capabilities and domestic design capability, resilient supply chains and relationships with global standard bodies.
• Indigenous means that India will need to manufacture its own chips in order to create base stations, antennas, and devices. This means India is not a consumer of next generation telecom infrastructure, but a producer.
Energy Sustainability: Green 6G
Densified networks and edge facilities will require huge amounts of energy, and without proper sustainability plans, 6G will increase the telecom sector’s carbon footprint before we realize it.
• Renewable-powered towers: A start with solar and hybrid energy solutions for macro and small cells.
• Energy-efficient cooling techniques: Liquid cooling and AI managed load in data centers.
• E-waste management: Potentially recycling or repurposing obsolete equipment of 5G/4G service providers to limit environmental impact.
6G of the future must align with India’s commitments to net zero and green energy adoption.
India’s Strategic Opportunity to Lead the 6G Race
Despite these challenges, India is in a unique timing window. In prior generations, India essentially had to play catch-up. Whereas preceding generations are now implementing, India is making early research investments in 6G. The India 6G Vision is in sync with global developments, while research collaboration with Finland, Japan and the U.S. is positioning India to participate in the international standards ecosystem.
If India can coincide early research with infrastructure plans, it would be poised to take not only the biggest 6G market in the world, but also potentially lead globally by exporting 6G solutions and standards.
6G is more than about just building another faster network. 6G is establishing a new paradigm of digital infrastructure. For India, it will depend on the extent to which fibre networks can expand, towers modernised, small cells densified, edge data centers deployed, indigenous hardware developed, and above all else, executed sustainably.
The road ahead is hard, but it is a unique opportunity. If India invests wisely at this stage, the infrastructure will not only generate a new wave of connectivity but also catalyse a new period of economic growth and global technology significance.
Authored by Dr. Bondada Raghavendra Rao, Chairman & Managing Director, Bondada
Engineering Limited.
