Telecommunications

5. The Bharat 6G Alliance: Mapping India’s IP Share in Next-Gen Telecom

Aria Kenangan Aria Kenangan
📅 June 20, 2026
⏱️ 5 min read
🏷️ Policy, Infrastructure
6G Alliance

Structural Mechanics

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) launched the Bharat 6G Alliance to position India as a primary intellectual property (IP) contributor to the ITU-R IMT-2030 standards. By focusing on sub-terahertz frequencies, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS), and integrated sensing and communication (ISAC), the initiative aims to move beyond the manufacturing-only model of 5G to secure standard-essential patents (SEPs) for 6G hardware and network protocols.

Data-Driven Metrics

  • Patent Filings: Indian academic institutions and telecom startups hold over 200 patents accepted in the 3GPP and ITU-R working groups for 6G technologies.
  • Spectral Focus: R&D is concentrated on the 95 GHz to 3 THz band, aiming for peak data rates of 1 Terabit per second (Tbps).
  • Latency Benchmarks: Target architectures aim for sub-millisecond over-the-air latency, integrated with AI-driven edge resource allocation.

Strategic Vector

The government should establish a sovereign patent pool fund to help local startups defend and license their telecom SEPs in international markets.