AI to make telecom network self-healing, improve customer services with shift to 6G: DoT Secretary

Artificial intelligence will make telecom networks self-healing and improve customer services, telecom secretary Neeraj Mittal said on Saturday.

Speaking at the India Mobile Congress 2025, Mittal said that the government is trying to keep pace with the fast-evolving technological landscape and come up with an organised response as a country along with ITU (International Telecommunication Union) to see the manner in which AI and telecom developments can be harmonised for good.

"As we move from 5G to 6G, There is a tremendous role for AI to improve the intelligence in the networks, make them self-healing, move from generative AI to agentic AI, where both in the front end, deep in the network, and in the middle part of the network, there will be a lot of functions which AI will replace, make the customer service better," Mittal said.

According to telecom industry players, 6G trials are expected to start in 2028 and commercial deployment will take some more time.

Mittal said while AI is being used for good, there is also risk associated with AI for its bad usage and hence there is need to remain vigilant about the use of technology.

"I look after telecoms in the Government of India. We are able to see how artificial intelligence aided tools are leading to deep fakes, they are leading to cloning of voice, leading to financial fraud, bypassing voice signatures, bypassing even videos to establish identities and therefore we have to be very vigilant about what the telecom network will look like with artificial intelligence," Mittal said.

The Department of Telecom has developed an AI-based fraud risk indicator tool using which payments app PhonePe and Paytm have claimed to protect citizens from fraud worth Rs 200 crore and blocked more than 48 lakh suspicious transactions.

"We feel that the AI for good, the foundational pillars of innovation, skills capacity building, governance and standards should lead to trusted, impactful and accessible solutions for everybody. India is advancing the AI for good vision to a $1 =.25 billion India AI mission by investing in research, startups, and scaling to advance the goals of a secure and inclusive AI ecosystem," Mittal said.

He said that India continues to shape the AI fairness and governance agenda through leadership at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA-24) and contributions to the ITU's AI standardisation framework.