6G initiative shows India's confidence

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday unveiled the vision document of the country and said initiatives around 6G within six months of the 5G rollout show India's confidence.

He said from being a mere consumer of telecom technology, India is now moving fast to become a big exporter of that technology.

"Within six months of the 5G rollout, today we are talking about 6G. This shows the confidence of India. Today we have brought the vision document to the fore. This will become a big base for the rollout of 6G," Modi said.

The vision document released by Department of Telecom states that while 5G technology promises a speed of 40-1,100 Mbps with the potential to hit maximum speed of 10,000 Mbps, 6G will offer ultra-low latency with speeds up to 1 terabit per second—which is 1,000 times more than the top speed of 5G.

The PM at the event inaugurated the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Area Office and Innovation Centre, which has been set up in the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) campus. It will be fully funded by India.

He said the ITU office in India will help create the right environment for 6G in the country. "Before 4G, India was only a user of telecom technology, but now India is moving fast to become a big exporter of telecom technology," he said.

The PM said that technology that has been successfully developed indigenously is getting attention from across the world. He said India has two main powers- "Trust and Scale". "Without trust and scale we cannot take technology to every nook and corner. I will say that trust is a prefix to present day technology. With 100 crore mobile phones, India is the most connected democracy of the world. Cheap smartphones and cheap data has transmogrified India," Modi said.

He said digital inclusion has taken place at a large scale in India with digital payments, direct benefit transfer, JanDhan, Aadhaar, rapid rollout of broadband services etc. "Telecom technology is not just a mode of power in India but it is a mission to empowerment," Modi said.

Talking about India's telecom success story, Modi said the number of internet users has increased from 25 crore in 2014 to 85 crore. He said internet connections in rural areas have overtaken that of urban centres, which shows the way digital power is reaching every nook and corner of the country.