IMC 2024: India poised to lead global 6G efforts, calls for unity

Organised in partnership by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the 8th edition of the Indian Mobile Congress (IMC) 2024 is the largest telecom, media, and technology forum in Asia. It began its third day with a display of sustainable tech solutions, use cases, and how blockchain is being integrated into businesses.

The third day contained several panels and seminars, including: AI for Tomorrow: From Principles to Practices, Winning in the AI Revolution, Leveraging Scalable Network as a Service to Unlock Revenue Streams The Impact of 5G: Has It Really Affected Everyone? Advancing Business: Using 5G use cases in the workplace, Digital demand balancing: Making sure telecom networks are treated fairly, Personalised, Secure, and Ecological: The Next Frontier in Smart Mobility New Developments and Technologies in the Broadcasting Industry Acquiring Proficiency in Skilling for a Connected Future: Linking the Unconnected, From Concept to Practice: Electronics Manufacturing Pioneer, Investigating 5G Prospects for Industry 4.0, and so forth. 

Building the future of human connections is Meta Platforms' primary objective, according to Alan Norman, director of public policy. Globally, there are more than 4 billion users of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and numerous other apps. Our goal with augmented virtual reality is to make customers feel as though they are somewhere they aren't by creating a more immersive experience. Customers' broadcast experiences are being improved by Meta's two ground-breaking innovations in this space, the Xtadium app and the Quest 3 virtual reality headset.

Reliance Jio's SLG Head (Enterprise), Salil Khanna, stated that 5G technology is anticipated to be extremely important to India's economic development. With millions of users, Jio has a strong 5G network that provides an improved multimedia and teamwork experience. These days, the emphasis is on bringing 5G solutions to businesses, which means making investments in cloud infrastructure, AI, and mobile computing. To successfully apply these solutions, cooperation with device manufacturers and other industry stakeholders is essential. In the upcoming years, India will be in a strong position to take advantage of 5G technology and achieve major advancements in the field.

"The main challenge for any commercial entity is providing the best quality to subscribers while making some profit out of it, and this is not occurring for Telcos at this time," stated Lt. Gen. Dr. S.P. Kochhar, DG, COAI. The second problem concerns us, the TSPs, building the telecom network in its entirety over the course of its seven layers, getting to the application stage, and then having the OTTs enter and use the top layer without paying fees commensurate with the services they are receiving.

Due to its excellent synergy with 5G, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) is commonly considered as the first killer use case of 5G, according to Dr Paul Sitch, Product Manager, Customer Requirements, Nokia. Compared to earlier generations, 5G permits substantially greater spectrum allocations because it uses spectrum in the 3-5 GHz range. In the past, data was backhauled to a regional centre that housed the applications and core network. Low latency is essential, nevertheless, to support cutting-edge use cases like autonomous systems, mines, ports, wireless manufacturing, and driverless cars. Core apps must be relocated to within a few kilometres of the base stations in order to accomplish this, he added.

In addition to IMC 2024, India is also organising two international conferences from October 14–24, 2024, in Pragati Maidan: the World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly New Delhi 2024 (WTSA 2024) and the Global Standards Symposium (GSS 2024).