6G drive: India prepares for 6G trials; global experts at IMC 2025 call for collaboration – The Times of India

India is gearing up for 6G trials, with global experts at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2025 highlighting the country’s growing importance in next-generation network development and international collaboration. Industry leaders and researchers told ANI that India’s push in 6G research and innovation could shape the future of global connectivity.Ashutosh Dutta, Chief 5G Strategist at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, told news agency ANI that ubiquitous connectivity would be a defining feature of 6G. “Not everybody has access to cell towers or Wi-Fi, so when these are not available, we fall back to satellite,” he said. Dutta emphasised the need to integrate non-terrestrial and terrestrial networks to ensure seamless communication. “Operators, academics, and service providers should work together to build prototypes, simulations, and testbeds to support different applications,” he added.He also underlined that secure and uninterrupted connectivity will be critical for 6G adoption. “As we switch between access technologies like Wi-Fi and satellite, maintaining security and privacy will be crucial,” Dutta noted, adding that cross-country collaboration on chip development and AI-enabled technologies would strengthen network resilience. “India has real technical manpower and strong government support. What we need is collaboration among academia, industry, and government to develop the future skill set,” he said.Professor Harald Haas, Professor of Engineering and widely known as the “Father of Li-Fi,” said the technology could play a transformative role in India’s connectivity landscape. “Li-Fi can help connect rural communities by building free-space optical communications where fibre is too expensive,” he told ANI. He added that Li-Fi could complement 5G and 6G networks by offering additional data capacity and energy-efficient connectivity. “We can even use solar panels as broadband receivers, harnessing both sunlight and data together,” Haas said, quoted ANI.Echoing the sentiment, Iwao Hosako, Executive at Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communication Technology (NICT), said India is emerging as a major power in communications and software. “India is a very big power because of its industries in communications and software development,” he told ANI. Hosako said Japan sees immense potential to collaborate with India on new services and technologies. “Many talented people from India already work with us, and we hope to expand this cooperation to a higher level, between industries and governments,” he added.