Government officials, regulators, and industry leaders gathered at the ‘COAI DigiCom Summit 2026’ to emphasize the importance of a secure, resilient, and AI-powered digital ecosystem. Discussions at the summit focused on policy, innovation, and collaboration to propel India’s digital growth in the upcoming phase. Manish Sinha from the Department of Telecommunications highlighted the need for enhanced security measures with the rapid expansion of 5G and digital services to ensure trust and accountability.
NK Bhola, Wireless Advisor, acknowledged India’s progress towards a digitally empowered future driven by advancements in 4G and 5G technologies, with preparations underway for a 6G-ready environment. He stressed the significance of efficient spectrum management and the integration of artificial intelligence in various areas, including predictive maintenance and dynamic spectrum utilization. Sajan Paul from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Networking India discussed the transformative impact of AI on network architecture, emphasizing edge computing and agentic AI for more intelligent telecom systems.
The summit also featured a panel discussion on the development of intelligent and scalable networks, where telecom leaders highlighted the shift towards AI-led networks requiring robust infrastructure and industry collaboration. Experts foresee that the evolution towards 5G Advanced and 6G will necessitate higher bandwidth and new use cases, urging policy backing and sustainable monetization models for continued investments. Dr. Devesh Tyagi from the National Internet Exchange of India projected that the next phase of digital growth in India will be driven by Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, ensuring equal service access for all citizens.
The importance of fortifying India’s digital infrastructure value chain was underscored, including expanding fiber networks, investing in submarine cables, and enhancing domestic AI compute capacity. The summit concluded with a consensus that India is poised to become a global digital infrastructure hub, supported by scale, talent, and policy frameworks, with sustained collaboration crucial for realizing this vision.
