DoT, ITU join Hands to explore Future-Ready Infra with AI-driven Technologies
By TIOL News Service
NEW DELHI, FEB 18, 2025: SECRETARY (Telecom), Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India, Dr. Neeraj Mittal embarked on an official visit to Geneva today to further strengthen India's global digital leadership and deepen engagements with key international stakeholders in the telecommunication sector.
During his visit, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) signed a Letter of Intent (LoI), marking the beginning of a new phase of strategic collaboration. Through this LoI, both sides intend to initiate discussions regarding the conditions and modalities for carrying out common initiatives and projects, particularly to
drive innovation in digital twins, AI-driven solutions, virtual world technologies, and the transformative potential of IMT-2030 technologies;
promote the development of global standards and best practices to ensure seamless interoperability and scalability;
advance sustainable development through shared frameworks, capacity building, and cross-sectoral collaboration, and
Foster citizen engagement and participatory approaches to urban and infrastructure planning.
Dr Mittal held various meetings with leadership of ITU. In his meeting with Ms. Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Secretary-General, ITU, Dr. Mittal reaffirmed India's commitment to digital connectivity, inclusion, and innovation. Key focus areas of discussion included India's leadership in 5G/6G technologies, AI for Digital Transformation, cybersecurity frameworks, and ITU's Partner2Connect initiative aimed at bridging the global digital divide. India also reiterated its pledge to support ITU's initiatives by contributing to global connectivity projects and skill development programs.
Further, with the aim of positioning India as a global hub for policy discourse on telecommunications and ICT regulations, Dr Mittal also proposed to host the ITU-Plenipotentiary Conference 2030 in India. India's proposal was positively acknowledged, and discussions will continue at the upcoming ITU Council Meeting. India has successfully hosted WTSA -2024 in New Delhi in Oct 2024.
AI- Driven Digital Twin Technologies: Telecom Beyond Connectivity
Next-generation mobile communication technologies are evolving beyond traditional connectivity to become essential platforms for innovative infrastructure planning. By seamlessly integrating AI, Digital Twins, and real-time, ubiquitous connectivity into a unified ecosystem, these technologies generate pervasive intelligence, enabling open, interconnected systems that fundamentally transform how infrastructure is planned, collaborated on, and executed across critical sectors like transport, urban development, and healthcare. These advancements enable infrastructure planning to be more dynamic, adaptive, and sustainable, benefiting all sectors.
The collaboration through the LoI marks a significant shift in the telecom sector's role-evolving from simply providing connectivity to becoming a platform that delivers accurate, reliable, and insightful data for infrastructure planning. It opens up opportunities to explore innovative business models, enabling a new ecosystem to deliver scalable, data-driven, and knowledge- based solutions across industries, driving sustainable growth and shaping the future of infrastructure.
Key Highlights of the Collaboration:
Knowledge Sharing and Capacity Building: Facilitate the exchange of insights from initiatives like DoT's Sangam and ITU's Citiverse to improve cross-sectoral data integration and collaborative planning.
Global Standards Development: Contribute to ITU-T Study Group 20 on IoT, digital twins, and smart cities to create global standards, APIs, and methodologies ensuring seamless scalability of AI-driven solutions.
Sandbox Environments and Demonstrations: Establish sandbox environments to test innovative digital twin technologies, conduct pilot projects, and adapt regulatory frameworks that validate the transformative potential of these technologies.
Citizen Engagement and Simulations: Use AI-powered platforms to engage citizens in real-time urban planning and infrastructure development, enhancing participatory governance and collaborative decision-making.
Mobile Phone Data (MPD) and Privacy: Exchange insights on privacy-enhancing techniques (PETs) and their use in ICT measurement, particularly in the context of building digital twins for urban planning.
AI Model Integration for Digital Twins: Customize AI models using country-specific datasets to deliver context-sensitive solutions for infrastructure development and urban mobility challenges.
