• Member
• October 14, 2026

Foresights for Telecom and Mobile How Networks and Devices Will Change by 2031

SRIJAN SANCHAR

 

 

Telecom is moving from networks that react to networks that prepare, and from devices that connect to devices that act. Srijan Sanchar introduced five foresights on this shift at India Mobile Congress 2026 in New Delhi, looking ahead to 2031.

These are working hypotheses, offered to be tested and challenged, not predictions. Each draws on public research and deployments, and each asks what India, with the world's largest mobile user base, can learn and build next.

The five foresights are:

1.    Networks become programmable physical architecture.

2.    Networks prepare for predictable demand instead of reacting to it.

3.    Connectivity moves from coverage to presence.

4.    Devices become personal intelligent interfaces.

5.    Connectivity becomes integrated, inclusive and resilient.

1. Networks become programmable physical architecture

By 2031, the physical parts of radio systems, from circuit boards to building surfaces, are likely to become controllable rather than fixed. Antennas, filters and transmission paths that are designed once today could be reconfigured in software tomorrow.

We traced ten possible states of this evolution, from near-certain continuations to deep changes in what a radio structure is:

#	2031 state	The shift	Significance
1	Functional antenna circuit board	Component becomes a function of the board	Likely continuation
2	Integrated antenna and filter	One function becomes several in one structure	Strong convergence
3	Matching by geometry	Circuit becomes electromagnetic shape	Likely transition
4	Programmable resonator or filter	Fixed response becomes selectable	Emerging possibility
5	Programmable transmission path	Fixed path becomes configurable	Emerging possibility
6	Integrated waveguide architecture	Interconnect becomes a functional field guide	Longer-horizon possibility
7	Programmable coupling network	Fixed connections become dynamic	Potential architecture shift
8	Programmable beamforming surface	An antenna array becomes a surface	High-value candidate
9	Multi-beam, multi-function surface	One beam or function becomes many	High-impact discontinuity
10	Programmable electromagnetic material	Passive material becomes controllable	Deepest possibility

 

The critical uncertainties are practical: losses, heat, control complexity and manufacturing cost. The most striking implication is that buildings, windows and everyday surfaces could take part in communication, not just block it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Networks prepare for predictable demand

Much of what stresses a network is known in advance, yet networks mostly discover it live. Train timetables, ride-hailing demand, cricket fixtures, release dates and power-cut schedules all sit with other organisations. Sharing them, in aggregate and privacy-safe form, could let networks prepare.

Journey-aware networks. Timetables, bookings and mobility demand tell the network where crowds will be. Capacity can wake before a train or crowd arrives and sleep safely after, saving energy without hurting service.

Content-aware networks. A cricket final is not a surprise. Fixtures, release calendars and expected audiences by region and language can guide capacity, caching and even site power readiness. India's biggest streaming moments now reach tens of crores of concurrent viewers.

Other signals. The same logic applies to power-outage schedules, weather forecasts, roadworks that threaten fibre, festival migration and examination results days.

The guiding rule is simple: advance information pays off when an action takes longer to set up than live measurements give warning. That points to energy, power, fuel and capacity planning, not to steering individual phones. Some leading operators already do parts of this from their own data, especially on high-speed rail. What remains largely untested is the regular flow of schedules from transport and content partners into networks, and whether it beats the network's own analytics.

3. From connectivity to presence

The question changes from "Can the network cover this location?" to "Can the network provide the service where people are going to be?" Exhibitions, metro stations, markets, stadiums, festivals and disaster zones are where networks struggle most, and where people most need them.

A proximity network brings services to the crowd. Nearby devices and local infrastructure prepare communication and services before people arrive, so they are served immediately. Two layers keep it trustworthy:

•      Essential layer: connectivity, safety alerts and emergency communication, always available.

•      Optional layer: local information, wayfinding, commerce and networking, only with consent.

The principle is to predict the crowd, not the person. The building blocks, from device-to-device links to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, already exist. The new step is organising them around real places and real moments.

We describe the wider idea as emergent networks: connectivity that forms where people gather, arising from many local interactions rather than only from central planning.

4. Devices become personal intelligent interfaces

The phone is turning from a communication device into a personal interface that understands context and acts on intent. By 2031 that interface may be spread across many forms: phone, foldable, glasses, earbuds, ring, band, skin patch, pendant, or no device at all.

Ten forms along a path. Near-term forms are evolutionary: AI-native smartphones, foldable and rollable devices, smart glasses and in-ear assistants. Later forms differ more from today: health bands and rings, skin-patch communicators, AI pendant companions, spatial holographic interfaces and ambient interfaces where the environment itself responds to voice and gesture. New materials, on-device AI, ubiquitous connectivity and interaction beyond screens drive the path.

Five designs for a more capable Bharat. Grounded in Indian needs, we explored five phones that move from communication to personal agency:

Design	Role	What it does
Samvadini	Universal communicator	Real-time translation, sign-language support, inclusive design, satellite links
Jnanadipa	Knowledge companion	Multimodal sensing, local-language knowledge, personalised learning
Sugamati	Transaction partner	Payments, identity, contextual purchases, agentic transactions
Nirnayadipika	Decision advisor	Scenario simulation and life planning with explainable AI
Karmasetu	Action orchestrator	Controls home, vehicle and farm devices, robots and drones

 

Five improbable designs. To stretch thinking, we also imagined designs that look unlikely today:

Design	Idea
Luminex	An ambient intelligence phone that senses air, water, plants and pollution around you
Morpho	A shape-shifting phone built from programmable materials: phone, band, tablet or stand
Mindmate	A cognitive companion for focus, learning and wellbeing, private by design
Terralink	A rugged, self-powered phone connected by satellite and ground networks anywhere on Earth
Nexus	A personal action hub that turns intent into real-world results through devices and robots

 

The common thread is trust. Devices that sense more and act more must earn it through privacy, explainability and user control.

5. Integrated, inclusive and resilient connectivity

By 2031, connectivity is likely to be one fabric across space, air, ground and sea. Satellites, high-altitude platforms, drones, towers, small cells and coastal networks would work together, with devices moving between them without the user noticing.

Three priorities follow for India:

•      Inclusion. Community connectivity hubs, local-language services and satellite links can reach villages that towers will never reach economically.

•      Resilience. Power is the weak point of many sites. Preparing batteries and fuel ahead of scheduled power cuts, storms and big events matters as much as adding capacity.

•      Sustainability. Networks that sleep when demand is absent, and wake just in time, cut energy and cost without reducing service.

Networks are also starting to sense as well as communicate, and to compute at the edge. Communication, sensing, computation and interaction are converging into one service layer.

From foresight to action

Foresight is useful only if it changes what people work on. Three principles guide how we offer these ideas.

•      Honest about novelty. Most building blocks already exist in research or deployment. The contribution lies in new combinations, applied to Indian conditions, and in testing them.

•      Hypotheses, not claims. Every benefit is a working estimate until measured. Studies should fix their success and stop criteria in advance, and report negative results.

•      Privacy and safety first. Aggregate data before individual data, consent where personal data is used, and safety-critical systems kept out of scope.

Mapping the possibilities. We work by laying out a problem's independent choices and their options, so that a vague question becomes a map of possible solutions. That map shows what has been tried, what can be borrowed from other sectors, and what remains unexplored.

Connecting knowledge and execution. Great products need both. At IMC 2026, Srijan Sanchar co-hosted CCSU Meerut and IIMT with their industry partners, bringing faculty, students, entrepreneurs and companies onto one platform. The aim is to connect telecom's hard problems with the people who can solve them, from universities, startups, industry and other sectors.

An invitation

These foresights are a starting map, not an answer. We would welcome operators, tower companies, transport and content platforms, device makers, universities and startups who want to test them with real data, or to show us where they are wrong.

To start a conversation, visit srijansanchar.com.