It’s been a month since Mobile World Congress (MWC). We’ve had some time to reflect back on pre-, during-, and post-MWC interactions with vendors, enterprises, and providers which we have captured in this review.

MWC has shifted its focus from 5G as the main connectivity to all things and enabler of new digitalization to either what can help make 5G better or how 5G plays a role in the hybrid connectivity landscape. 5G itself hasn’t lived up to the hype, and this was apparent in the first keynote highlighting that 5G revenue has remained flat while 5G investments and costs continue to rise. Subsequent speakers shared their thoughts on how the industry could correct this, which included pushing governments for deregulation.

While we weren’t able to attend every presentation or visit every booth, MWC energy was high; there were new topics and others that continued from 2024. The industry continues to focus on the following topics from last year:

  • Pursuing a “field of dreams.” Carriers continue to pursue ways to make money and be more than a wire with the industry’s API initiatives, including the GSMA Open Gateway initiative, operating under the CAMARA framework. With nearly 100 network APIs, the industry has seen some of the following capabilities being built on top of the infrastructure: 1) fintech services to detect fraud; and 2) the ability for users to verify the phone number of the connected device. Aduna, which is the chosen name for the joint venture between Ericsson and 12 carriers, was just outside Ericsson’s booth, making this monetization point very clear. However, the opportunity to create rapport with the software development community is up for grabs in the short term, with players other than telco vendors and carriers having a better chance at doing so.
  • Looking toward AI and generative AI (genAI) to help with revenue generation and efficiencies. While AI has been discussed over the last three MWCs, telcos have just started to integrate AI into network lifecycle management, focusing on automation to fine-tune hardware and software for energy efficiency and reliability. AI’s role is expanding in network assurance, zero-touch operations, and edge applications. GenAI is emerging in telcos, initially focusing on service empowerment and support through examples such as Ask Telstra and SK Telecom’s A. Deutsche Telekom’s T Phone with Brain.ai and Qualcomm represents a step toward app-free AI phones. Telco large language models are facilitating effective internal knowledge base searches for employees and will increasingly enable intent-based network management, as seen with Aira RANGPT and NetMaster. The AI-RAN Alliance, launched at MWC ’24, aims to transform radio infrastructure using AI to optimize RAN asset utilization and QoS, as well as unlock new revenue streams. Key members include AWS, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, and Samsung, focusing on spectral efficiency, RAN operational efficiency, digital twins, and AI readiness for 5G and 6G RAN evolution.
  • Awaiting private 5G takeoff. While a few cases were mentioned during keynote sessions (e.g., Telenor) and no shortage of network technology solutions (e.g., Ericsson, HPE, Mavenir, Nokia, Samsung), the reality is that private 5G is stagnant right now. Enterprises are expected to continue exploring and experimenting with this technology during the next 18 to 24 months. In parallel, players in the industry will continue to refine their offerings to focus on business outcomes rather than just another connectivity method. Manufacturing, under the industry 4.0/5.0 umbrella, has been the hottest industry for private 5G. The MWC ’25 manufacturing and production summit reflected this, a topic present in but not overpowering the MWC ’25 agenda.
  • Timing for nonterrestrial networks (NTNs) is key. NTNs were well represented in the keynotes (e.g., KDDI), booth halls (e.g., Amazon Kuiper, Eutelsat, Globalstar, Intelsat, Iridium, NTT Docomo, NTT OC89, SES, SpaceSail, Starlink, Telesat, Viasat), and NTN/Satellite summit. Low earth orbit (LEO) and high-altitude platform stations (HAPS) continue to be a dominant technology topic for use cases such as mobile backhaul, enterprise broadband connectivity, and direct-to-device communications. Globalstar/Apple as well as Starlink/T-Mobile have taken the lead position thus far, offering emergency and regular text messaging services to consumers. AST SpaceMobile/AT&T continue to make progress by showcasing video calls over direct-to-device satellite data connectivity. We expect these text messaging offerings to continue evolving for the next 18 to 24 months across various providers. The provider(s) able to develop/offer seamless commercial voice services within this timeframe will secure the leading position in the race.

What’s new and emerging:

  • Enterprise and telecommunication worlds are merging together. Similar to what is happening between enterprise security and networking, the telecommunication and enterprise infrastructure worlds have started to merge. MWC was once a pure telecommunications conference, but enterprise solutions have started to creep in. Broadcom, Cisco, Huawei, Juniper, Palo Alto, and others are showcasing enterprise solutions alongside telecommunications.
  • A phoenix (Huawei) is rising out of the ashes. Two years ago, Huawei occupied a relatively small space in the back of Hall 4. While the US sanctions might have had a short-term effect on the company, Huawei has since recovered and might be doing better controlling its own destiny across all electronic components. The company had the largest booth at MWC; it took up Hall 1 and used Hall 8 for presentations. Companies such as Deutsche Telekom highlighted the value of using Huawei during their presentations. Huawei’s booth showcased smart cities, manufacturing, hospitality, and even smart homes with incredible video and audio systems. Its solutions encompassed both the enterprise and telecom product lines.
  • GEO connectivity for direct-to-device communications is not dead. While industry is focused on LEO and HAPS for direct-to-device, GEO is coming back with novel solutions for consumers. Terrestar Solutions (a Canada satellite GEO provider), Bittium, Qualcomm, and TTP have jointly developed a snap-on module, Sat Companion, which enables any regular smartphone with RF power and battery capacity to communicate with GEO satellites using 5G NTN standards. Similarly, Thuraya/Space42 (a Middle East satellite GEO provider) has launched the first smartphone (Skyphone/Thuraya One) with dual connectivity (e.g., cellular 4G/5G and GEO satellite MSS), providing a concealed antenna that can be released and retracted in a spring-loaded manner. Both Terrestar Solutions and Thuraya will work with communications service providers through a channel/partnership strategy.
  • Hyperscalers are entering the telco infrastructure domain. With the objective of providing an AI-ready cloud-native software and hardware stack, AWS has launched its telco outpost solutions for either a Distributed Unit RAN site or a Core User Plane Function site. This approach will reduce site implementation times while providing a ready stack to host vendor RAN software workloads, RAN-AI workloads, and enterprise AI workloads. The significance is the ability to bring observability solutions at the edge correlating application layer with network domain by means of AWS CloudWatch observability tools. Currently working with Nokia SW workloads, it is expected to expand its offering with other major vendors.

What has gotten quiet or completely disappeared?

  • Just a glimpse of OpenRAN. Mentioned in one of the keynotes (Vodafone), OpenRAN was a topic lingering in the air through the major proponent booths (e.g., Ericsson, Mavenir) but not really making loud noise or big waves in this MWC event. It seems to be following the same path as the network function virtualization (NFV) initiative.
  • 6G is nowhere to be seen yet. 6G is a topic that remains quiet for now, mentioned only in one of the keynotes as an aspirational target for India to become the leading country of the technology’s evolution. We anticipate 6G to have a stronger presence starting in MWC 2027 onward.