India Secures Seat at Global 6G Standards Table
India has secured a seat at the global 6G standards table for the first time, collaborating directly with the ITU and 3GPP. The country's Bharat 6G Alliance is now targeting 10% of all global 6G patents, signaling a major push to shift from a technology consumer to a key contributor in next-generation wireless standards.
The Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA), launched in July 2023 by the Ministry of Communications, is a strategic platform uniting public and private companies, academic institutions, and research bodies. Its primary objective is to position India as a leading global supplier of intellectual property and affordable 6G solutions by 2030. The alliance has rapidly grown from 15 members to over 100, including prominent IITs, startups, and telecom giants. This initiative marks a deliberate strategic shift from India's previous role as a technology adopter to becoming a key architect in the next generation of telecommunications. The government has set an ambitious target for Indian entities to secure 10% of all global 6G patents. This goal is a significant increase from the country's contributions to earlier generations of wireless technology. The B6GA is structured to drive indigenous innovation through various working groups focused on areas like Spectrum, Devices, and Green and Sustainability. The effort is being operationalized in two phases: an exploratory research phase from 2023-2025, followed by an intellectual property creation and testbed deployment phase from 2025-2030. The government is backing this with significant funding, including a Rs 240.51 crore grant under the Telecom Technology Development Fund for projects like a 6G THz testbed. Internationally, the alliance is building a robust network of collaborations, having already forged partnerships with similar 6G initiatives in over 30 countries, including the US, UK, Europe, and Brazil. These agreements are designed to foster global knowledge exchange and joint development, ensuring Indian contributions are integrated into the global standards set by bodies like the ITU and 3GPP. This move comes as the global 6G landscape is taking shape, with initial technical specifications from the 3GPP expected around 2028-2030 for commercial deployment around 2030. The development of 6G is occurring in a charged geopolitical climate where technological leadership is tied to economic influence and national security, making India's proactive stance a critical strategic imperative. To bolster its technical contributions, the Department of Telecommunications' technical arm, the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), has signed Memorandums of Understanding with several IITs, including Bombay and Kharagpur. These partnerships focus on collaborative research in areas like 6G architecture, AI-enabled networks, and advanced antenna systems to strengthen India's submissions to global standardization forums. India's push into 6G standardization builds on lessons from its 5G experience, where its indigenously developed 5Gi standard was integrated into the 3GPP's Release 17. That marked a significant first for India's inclusion in global telecom standards and set a precedent for the more ambitious goals laid out for 6G. The successful, and notably rapid, nationwide deployment of 5G has been cited by officials as a foundational step, demonstrating India's capacity for large-scale network rollouts. This has created momentum for the "Bharat 6G Vision," which was officially released in March 2023 and emphasizes affordability, sustainability, and ubiquity as core principles.
