Some notes from MWC Barcelona 2026

stein@opensky

Another year, another MWC in Barcelona. Almost every year since MWC started out in Barcelona I have been there – as well as in Cannes before that. This year, the theme for the Congress was “The IQ era, with a focus on intelligent infrastructure, AI connectivity and integration, enterprise-level AI applications, AI ecosystem collaboration, inclusive technology and innovation-driven transformation”.

Some of my impressions from the event are provided below, however, it should be noted that the summary is my personal observations and impressions and not a comprehensive report on everything that happened at or around MWC. It is not possible for a single person to get a full picture of an event like MWC, however, there are official reports from GSMA and also lots of professional reporters from various tech media that may provide or have already provided more comprehensive MWC reports.

The main purposes for my attendance in general are: 1) to get a general industry update and: 2) to catch up with old friends and colleagues. I also had a few business meetings, but this was not my main purpose. I always try, however, to do a mix between attending a certain number of conference sessions and to have a few meetings – and to walk around the exhibition to get a general impression of what’s going on – but for non-experienced MWC attendees, my advice is that a random walkabout is not recommended. You should always have a nominal plan set up in advance.

Keynotes

I normally try to attend the opening keynotes – and this year as well. I skipped all the others, as there is nothing much to learn – but they can be somewhat entertaining. As usual the opening session is for the GSMA Chairman and the GSMA Director General to give their updates and views on the industry – in addition to giving the floor to some of the more prominent GSMA Board members. This time we saw Vodafone, Orange, AT&T and Bharti – and, as always, one of the huge Chinese Board members (this time China Telecom – actually speaking English for once – but with the usual too busy Chinese slides).

As expected, Vivek Badrinath, the GSMA DG did a historical recap (as this was the 20^th MWC in Barcelona – and also 150 years since the first ever telephone call). He also referred to the industry’s initiative on Open Gateway and on safety and security, the MNOs being the trusted partner for consumers and enterprises. He also highlighted the importance of global standards, scale and innovation (which have driven the success of the mobile industry so far).

In the area of AI (which generally was one of the main features at the Congress) he highlighted the need for a “telco grade AI” – and the same day, the GSMA launched Open Telco AI to drive telco-grade AI models – an initiative bringing together industry and academia to build AI models specifically for telecom operators, with significant early contributions from AT&T, AMD and TensorWave.

Vivek finally outlined three “mountains” the industry must climb together: 1) Completing the 5G journey, 2) Rising to the AI challenge – and 3) Protecting the world from the escalating global scam epidemic. 

Christel Heydemann (Orange) and Sunil Bharti Mittal (Bharti Airtel) also referred to trust  as a critical asset for mobile operators – and, as expected, they also commented on Europe and regulatory challenges. Margherita Della Valle (Vodafone), on the other hand, focused on satellites and NTN integration this time. I missed John Stankey (AT&T) as I had another meeting – but according to Dean Bubley, he was “bullish about intermodal competition and hybrid services of all kinds”. He sees telecoms as a "dense fiber network with multiple accesses hanging off it", rather than differentiating fixed vs. mobile vs satellite”. Stankey also acknowledged the importance of indoor connectivity.

If we look at MWC numbers from GSMA, there were almost 105.000 attendees this year – which almost equals the record number of attendees from last year (110.000 last year, but Donald Trump and the war in Middle East hindered many Asians and Arabs from getting to the Congress).

If we look beyond numbers and keynotes, what really happened at MWC?

MWC is the largest annual global meeting place for the mobile industry – and this year was no exception. The visitors from all over the world were almost with record numbers and, in addition to the exhibition and conference itself, a lot of business meetings and a lot of wining and dining took place as usual. What has been a trend over the last years, however, is that the visitors at MWC increasingly come increasingly more also from adjacent industries – this time around 58% according to the GSMA.

So, what were the highlights at the Congress last week?

Artificial Intelligence (AI): As also last year, AI was all over the place at the Congress, somewhat more developed and advanced since last year – and I attended a few conference sessions on the topic. One was on “AI, what are we building for”, which was a kind of CFO-focused session facilitated by KPMG claiming that “2026 is the year of agentic AI” and focused on EBITDA and savings in people. It also referred to a “zero employee company”. This is contrary to what many AI proponents claim (saying that people will still be needed but in other roles - not my main interest though). One take-away I got from a panel, however, was the difference between consumer AI (TikTok was there) and enterprise AI. Consumers are mainly interested in having fun and not too worried about giving away data, while enterprises are looking for concrete problems to solve – with a clear focus on security and data protection.

I also attended a session on “Telco for AI”, hoping to get some new ideas on what AI can be used for in a telco setting, but no. There were some general ideas around opportunities only, but not much concrete. I already know that MNOs try to use AI for network optimization, at least in the RAN – but for revenue generation there was not much. NVIDIA referred to “AI as a Service” though. You cannot expect many secrets to be revealed at MWC.

When it comes to news and announcements during MWC, there were many, but I will not try to cover many of these. I can, however, mention that Jio Platforms aims to become “the world's largest AI token generator, arguing telecom economics are shifting from minutes and data to tokens in the emerging AI-driven digital economy”.

I can also mention Softbank’s AI vision which integrates a large-scale AI data centre platform powered by a GPU cloud, an AI-RAN-based MEC platform, and a software stack for AI data centres called Infrinia AI Cloud OS. “By optimising AI processing from training to inference and utilising its nationwide telecommunications infrastructure, SoftBank will build a distributed AI infrastructure that delivers low latency, high reliability and sovereign capability (data sovereignty). Through its Telco AI Cloud vision, SoftBank aims to evolve beyond the traditional role of a telecommunications operator and become an AI infrastructure provider,” it noted in this announcement. 

Finally, the term “physical AI” has emerged for humanoids walking, dancing, and fighting. The physical robotics race is on, and robots of all kinds were seen at the MWC.

5G: There were also several sessions on 5G, 5G SA, 5G Advanced etc – and a key message from the GSMA and many operators was “to make the most out of 5G”, i.e. to get 5G SA implemented (only 25-30% of operators have so far implemented it). I attended parts of a session on “5G goes pro” about network slicing (mostly tailoring latency, speed and priority). The examples given were mainly around public safety and private networks. Video services and upload speeds were also indicated. The bottom-line, however, for 5G is that the industry is still looking for where to find revenues to cover the investments – at least with something that scales.

6G was slightly more present at the Congress compared to last year – and Ericsson actually claimed a “world first” on 6G – which is strange although not surprising as the 6G standard is far from complete at this stage (something they of course confirmed when I confronted them). As with every “G”, vendor marketeers (as also operator CMOs) always try to push being “first”.

As I have commented several times earlier, however, the real 5G (5G SA) is not even there yet in the market in 2026 – and pushing 6G in 2030 seems overly optimistic (i.e. 2030 is too early for 6G). If we consider geopolitics and technology leadership, however, we can probably expect that China and Asia (and possibly USA) will push for 6G early – while Europe probably will hesitate. A global telco vendor like Ericsson will have to follow – and they obviously also need something new to sell (refer also my earlier article here) – although the markets might have different priorities. Refer also several of my earlier articles on 5G, e.g. “Making 5G a success – or waiting for 6G?”.

Qualcomm, the main chipmaker for “G”s, claims on their side that they plan to commercialize their 6G chips in 2029. NGMN, the operator driven consortium making operator requirements for mobile standards, repeated their messages for 6G several times at the Congress requiring 6G “not to reinvent the wheel”, to “allow an easy transition from 5G to 6G” etc. This is nothing revolutionary from NGMN, but a pragmatic operator-driven perspective from operators that will have to build and pay for 6G.

Security and trust have been increasingly focused during MWC over the last years and, having been part of that journey myself, I tried to attend a few sessions on it (ended up with only parts of one though). I took part in the first part of the GSMA’s Security Summit, but then I moved on to other sessions. Well-known is that one of the most important security threats is social engineering – and Rakuten also gave an example of cyber threats resulting from natural disasters. Geopolitics also impact security.

I attended a session at the Telenor pavilion on “The Future of Digital Trust” demonstrating a Phone Number Verification solution together with Google Firebase – avoiding SMS One-Time Passwords and which Telenor Linx can sell to any operator globally without any need for integration.

Satellites and NTN integration was another hot topic at the Congress, as also in the industry in general these days. See e.g. my article from earlier this year on “Mobile Satellite Services on the roll”. I attended parts of an “NTN Summit” with a number of satellite players including SES, Viasat, Globalstar etc. I noted that SES stated that they will not sell directly to customers but will use MNOs as a channel – and they are also working on multi-orbit systems. I also noted from Viasat and Space42 that they have formed the JV Equatys designed to create a global Direct-to-Device (D2D) satellite network based on 3GPP NTN standards and planning to use over 100 MHz of harmonized MSS spectrum (L- and S-bands) across more than 160 markets. They are also working to define common business models.

In addition, the most high-profile player Starlink announced during MWC their plans to launch a new D2D constellation, named V2, with Deutsche Telekom as its first telco partner. Starlink already has 650 D2D satellites in orbit and its V2 generation of satellites will be capable of delivering mobile broadband data speeds of up to 150 Mbit/s using globally harmonized S-band spectrum. Starlink will “start putting its V2 satellites into orbit in mid-2027 and aims to have a constellation of 1,200 V2 satellites in place within six months of the first launch”. “Starlink Mobile” will be “complementary” to terrestrial wireless, meaning "mobile network operators can invest less in terrestrial networks while unlocking seamless service in remote areas and enabling total coverage everywhere for customers," according to Starlink.

In China there are plans for 3 different satellite constellations – and Mobile World Live expects 20.000 satellites in space by 2030. So, space will be crowded in the years to come.

Open Gateway: The GSMA’s and the mobile telco industry’s push for network APIs and the Open Gateway were highlighted in several sessions at the Congress – and according to GSMA, “OpenGateway has moved from concept to commercial reality and 86 operator groups representing 301 networks have committed”. GSMA also states that “108 networks now have commercially launched across 64 markets - with 305 APIs now live”. See also my earlier commentary on “Dreaming of the long-tail and Network APIs”.

“Sovereignty” is a term and concept that has been increasingly in focus for the last year, in particular in Europe, based on the ongoing global trade wars and the recent moves by the Trump administration in the USA. The emerging question for many European countries and companies is if it is really possible to rely on technology from the USA in case of crisis. I attended a few sessions on the topic but without learning much new. I will therefore write a separate article on the topic (to come).

What can be mentioned, however, is that SK Telecom (SKT) unveiled its Sovereign AI Package, which integrates AI data centre infrastructure built on SK Group capabilities, SKT’s sovereign AI foundation model (A.X K1) and AI services tailored for industrial and enterprise use. “This strategy involves building a proprietary AI foundation model that understands local language and culture on infrastructure that is controlled and operated domestically, taking data sovereignty into account, and providing integrated AI services that have been validated in real industrial settings”.

Further, it was noted that Telenor has selected Red Hat’s cloud-native and AI platforms to help manage its Nvidia-powered sovereign AI factory, a Norwegian owned and operated service that aims to deliver secure, efficient, and scalable AI infrastructure and services to companies in the Nordic country.

Geopolitics were a part of the agenda at MWC, whether explicit or implicit and whether related to sovereignty or not – and I attended a session on whether we are entering an “AI regulatory cold war”. It is well known that the regulatory scenario is very different across regions of the world (refer also my recent commentary on “Digital lead and geopolitics”). There was not much new for me to note from this session, however, as I have experienced myself within a company, as there is a trade-off between speed to market and regulatory caution, we can most likely expect internal conflicts in many companies in the use of AI, e.g. legal vs technology or marketing. Legally, there are many different regulations across the globe, and as was referred to by the US panel member, even within the US, there are many regulations (i.e. many States).

As part of the geopolitical battle for 6G, it should also be noted that the European Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking, or SNS JU, used its presence at the MWC to announce €116m in funding for 20 6G R&D projects. In this public-private partnership about 80% of its projects embed AI and machine learning as core components, which it says reflects AI’s “central role in intelligent, autonomous 6G network management”.

Vendor specifics

Without any specific reference to MWC, I have noted that the two most prominent (and relevant) telco vendors in the Western world, Ericsson and Nokia, are pursuing different strategies for the RAN going forward. Nokia, that has teamed up with NVIDIA, is heavily investing in a "future-focused" approach that hinges on AI-native, GPU-driven RAN – while Ericsson is adopting a more cautious approach to hardware, focusing on efficiency and avoiding reliance on a single, expensive chip supplier. Ericsson focuses on a high-performance custom silicon for Layer 1. See also this commentary from Sebastian Barros here.

What also can be mentioned, however, is that NVIDIA brought together many large telecom players at MWC26 - Deutsche Telekom, T-Mobile, SK Telecom, SoftBank, BT Group, Ericsson, Nokia, Cisco - all of them committed to one idea: build 6G not as "fast internet" but as AI infrastructure.

It can also be mentioned that Huawei, the world’s largest telco vendor, which again occupied almost the full Hall 1 at MWC, seems to become increasingly an outcast (at least in the Western world). I did not manage to visit Huawei’s stand this year, but according to Sebastian Barros, “Huawei the outcast shows telecom moving towards AI embedded networks, satellite integrated coverage, and large industry alliances. Qualcomm, NVIDIA, GSMA, hyperscalers, and operators all launched coalitions across AI RAN, telecom AI models, APIs, and satellite connectivity. Across most of these initiatives one major player rarely appears: Huawei. The absence reflects a deeper geopolitical split now shaping the future telecom ecosystem.”

Based on personal experience, one important player that still embraces Huawei is the GSMA. See here where Alex Sinclair of the GSMA and Samuel Chen of Huawei explain how AI and 5G-Advanced are driving innovation in the mobile industry. It should be noted that the GSMA Board has all the huge Chinese operators on it and that Huawei is a large contributor to the work of GSMA.

Devices: Devices are not in my main area of interest and the main device launches take place outside MWC anyway (like at CES in Las Vegas or at dedicated company events by Apple or Samsung). Therefore, I provide no comments in this area. For interested parties, see this and this commentary from my old friend Philippe Lucas.

Summary

It is impossible to cover all sessions and experiences at MWC. I therefore always end up with double bookings – and in many cases I need to change my nominal plan during the Congress based on events. My commentary therefore is a snapshot only of what I personally experienced and / or registered. I did not spend much time on random walkabouts this year – so I might have missed some of the gadgets, robots and fun parts. With 8 exhibition halls and more than 100.000 attendees around, there is a limit to what you can do. Anyway, I hope my summary is useful.

To summarize my impressions:

• Still above 100.000 attendees: MWC lost some attendees this year due to the war in the Middle East, but still almost 105.000.

• Industry between “G”s: This year MWC was stuck between 5G and 6G. 5G is in the middle of its commercialization and the 6G standard is still under development.

• 5G: 5G is still looking for where MNOs can find revenues – and everyone is waiting for 5G Stand-Alone.

• 6G: It will be interesting to see how the race for 6G will play out. What will be launched in the 2030 timeframe – in which countries? … and how the 6G standard will emerge? Will we again get a phase 1 and phase 2 of the 6G standard (like in 5G) – since some will push for an early launch? How will geopolitics play out? … and how much Balkanization of the mobile industry and ecosystem will there be?

• Same old story complaining about EU regulation: The usual complaints about the EU regulatory regime were there from the large European operators.

• AI: was all around the Congress (even more than last year) and “2026 is the year of agentic AI”. Operators are using AI for network optimization and are also hoping to increase revenues with it. Operators need “telco grade AI”, however, and GSMA launched “Open Telco AI” to drive telco-grade AI models. “Physical AI” was seen all around the Congress, with humanoid robots walking, dancing, and fighting.

• Security: has been a topic of increased focus in the mobile industry – and trust is a main asset for mobile operators.

• Satellites and NTN integration: were high on the agenda and many NTN initiatives are known or were noted at MWC (e.g. Starlink’s V2 D2D plans). Although there has been improved collaboration between the mobile and satellite industries lately, e.g. converging on 3GPP standards, my impression is that business models are still to be defined and the ecosystem battle is on.

• Open Gateway: is getting increased traction – with 108 networks having commercially launched across 64 markets.

• Sovereignty and geopolitics were directly or indirectly on the agenda during MWC – as the ongoing global trade wars and military confrontations in the Middle East were on most people’s minds.

As always, although MWC is an exhausting exercise, I really enjoy going there. I will most likely be there next year as well – and MWC is equally as much about networking and making business as getting a technology and industry update.

Finally, as also last year, I have some more fundamental thoughts though. The mobile industry is no longer just a mobile industry and the GSMA is no longer just the trade association for mobile operators (although that is what it is supposed to be). According to the GSMA press release from MWC, 58% of the attendees are from industries adjacent to the mobile industry. See also one of my previous commentaries here.