Next-generation networks like 6G pose both opportunities and challenges for energy use and digital inclusion. Analyse.

The Bharat 6G Vision (2023) builds India's 2030 6G ambition on affordability, sustainability and ubiquity [2]. 6G's dense, AI-native design can either make connectivity greener and more inclusive or widen energy and access gaps. Which way it goes depends on design and policy choices.

Energy: Opportunities

• Sustainable by design: a 2026 white paper from the Bharat 6G Alliance (B6GA), Sustainable 6G: Designing Networks for a Carbon Net Zero Future, focuses on network energy use [1].
• Global norms: the New Delhi Declaration calls for energy-efficient, repairable and recyclable systems [3].
• AI-native networks: intelligent orchestration can match network capacity to demand and cut idle power [1].

Energy: Challenges

• Densification: higher frequencies travel shorter distances. That means many small sites, and each one needs power and backhaul.
• E-waste: each new generation of chipsets and handsets adds hardware turnover.
• Compute load: edge computing and AI-native cores raise electricity demand.

Digital Inclusion: Opportunities

• Fixed Wireless Access, pitched as "Bharat's Broadband Backbone", can reach the last mile where laying fibre doesn't pay [1].
• Wi-Fi–cellular synergy is aimed at inclusive connectivity [1].
• Normative push: the Declaration frames 6G as a global public good that is "inclusive and affordable" [3].

Digital Inclusion: Challenges

• Fibre deficit: only about 30% of towers were fiberised in the 5G era [4], and 6G backhaul will need far more.
• Spectrum cost: high reserve prices (Rs 492 crore/MHz) limit operators' investment [4], which pushes rural rollout to the back of the queue.
• Import dependence in telecom equipment raises network and device costs [4].

Densification ──► more power + more fibre
      │                      │
 energy strain        rural gap if unfunded
      └──► green-by-design + affordable access ◄──┘

Fig: Energy and inclusion share one root: network density

So energy use and inclusion are two sides of the same choice about network density. The way forward has four parts:

• Write green-by-design standards.
• Power sites with renewables.
• Price spectrum early and affordably.
• Treat fibre as essential national infrastructure, as the Parliamentary Committee recommended [4].

Done this way, 6G can advance SDG 7 and SDG 9 and meet the Declaration's promise that no one is left behind.