GSMA Says India Cannot Afford to Stay a Passive Observer in Advanced 5G Technologies
GSMA has said India must play an active role in the evolution of advanced 5G technologies as global telecom markets increasingly move towards standalone 5G capabilities such as network slicing. The industry body highlighted India’s strong 5G infrastructure investments and said the country is well positioned to support future digital innovation and 6G evolution.
The global telecom industry body GSMA has said India cannot afford to remain a passive observer in the development of advanced 5G technologies as the country enters the next phase of digital infrastructure evolution. Highlighting the growing global momentum around 5G network slicing, GSMA said India is now well positioned to play a leading role in next generation connectivity, digital innovation and future 6G evolution, backed by large scale investments in standalone 5G infrastructure and strong policy support from the government and regulators.
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Key Highlights
GSMA says India cannot afford to stay a passive observer in advanced 5G technologies
Network slicing is emerging as a major capability of standalone 5G networks
India has already invested more than Rs 4 lakh crore in 5G infrastructure
Countries like the US UK Singapore China and Malaysia are already exploring slicing services
GSMA says slicing can support healthcare smart cities manufacturing and public safety
Network Slicing Emerging as an Important 5G Capability
GSMA said network slicing is becoming one of the important capabilities enabled by standalone 5G networks and is already being explored or deployed across several international telecom markets under their respective regulatory and policy frameworks.
The industry body noted that countries including China, the United States, Singapore, the United Kingdom and Malaysia have already launched or piloted slicing-enabled services focused on differentiated connectivity experiences, better network efficiency and evolving consumer and enterprise requirements.
According to GSMA, the global telecom industry is gradually moving beyond basic 5G coverage expansion towards more advanced network capabilities that can support different digital experiences and industry use cases simultaneously over shared infrastructure.
Network slicing allows telecom operators to create multiple virtual layers within the same physical 5G network infrastructure. These layers can be optimised for different types of services depending on performance, latency, reliability or responsiveness requirements.
India’s 5G Investments Create Strong Foundation
GSMA said India’s telecom sector has made significant progress in deploying world class 5G infrastructure under the leadership of the Government of India, the Ministry of Communications and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
The organisation highlighted that telecom operators in India have collectively invested more than Rs 4 lakh crore into 5G rollout initiatives, creating a strong foundation for future digital innovation and next generation connectivity services.
According to GSMA, these investments position India strongly for the next phase of digital transformation and future network evolution.
The body also pointed towards India’s rapidly expanding digital ecosystem and the increasing importance of advanced connectivity technologies in supporting economic growth, industrial digitisation and emerging digital services.
Focus Shifting Towards Advanced 5G Experiences
While the first phase of 5G deployments across many countries largely focused on network rollout and coverage expansion, the telecom industry is now gradually moving towards experience-led and capability-driven innovation.
GSMA indicated that network slicing could become an important part of this transition by enabling operators to deliver differentiated connectivity experiences while improving the efficiency of overall network resource utilisation.
The organisation said slicing has the potential to support a broad range of future digital services and industrial applications across India.
These include advanced manufacturing, healthcare, public safety, smart cities and immersive digital experiences that may require different levels of network responsiveness and reliability.
GSMA noted that by enabling multiple virtual networks to operate on shared infrastructure, slicing can help support varying service requirements without requiring completely separate physical networks for each use case.
India’s Role in the Global Digital Economy
GSMA also stressed that India is well positioned to strengthen its role as a leading global digital economy as advanced 5G capabilities continue evolving internationally.
The organisation said approaches to network slicing services and their interaction with regulatory and policy frameworks are still evolving across different countries and markets globally.
As the ecosystem develops further, GSMA encouraged continued dialogue between industry stakeholders, policymakers and regulators to help unlock the full potential of 5G technologies in India.
According to the body, such discussions can help support innovation, strengthen consumer trust, encourage long term investments and enable future digital infrastructure development.
The statement also reflects the growing importance of standalone 5G infrastructure in supporting future telecom innovation beyond basic mobile broadband services.
With global telecom markets increasingly exploring advanced 5G applications and service models, GSMA indicated that India has the opportunity to become an active participant in the next stage of network innovation rather than remaining only a large scale deployment market.
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