India outlines AI-driven telecom vision at MWC 2026

India’s government used the MWC 2026 stage to argue that artificial intelligence is now central to how telecom networks will grow and operate. Officials highlighted that India has already deployed around 500,000 5G base stations, calling it one of the fastest 5G rollouts in the world, and framed this as the foundation for a more software-driven “IQ era” of networking.

In this vision, AI sits inside the network, not on the sidelines. The technology is expected to help mobile operators adapt traffic in real time, manage capacity dynamically, and support high-volume digital transactions without manual intervention. India’s message to the industry was that future telecom growth will depend less on adding hardware and more on how intelligently networks can observe, predict, and respond to demand.