All research

As 5G becomes the foundation of Qatar’s digital economy, the importance of securing its networks extends beyond consumer protection to national security and economic stability. This is the second report in a two-part series exploring how Qatar can strengthen cybersecurity resilience in a rapidly evolving 5G landscape. It presents a national 5G threat model and threat matrix designed to help operators and policymakers translate strategic priorities into actionable security measures.

By investing in AI factories, telecoms operators can leverage their infrastructure, traffic, customer base and regulatory positioning to capture a meaningful share of the expanding AI and cloud revenue pool. Scenario analysis suggests AI factories could deliver an incremental uplift of 1.5–6.0% to total operator revenues, depending on execution and market share capture. This represents a meaningful growth lever in an otherwise mature industry.

This edition of GSMA Intelligence's Chart of the Month looks at major operators' progress with revenues beyond traditional core telecoms. The GSMA Intelligence Chart of the Month is a visual way of telling an important story in the mobile and broader tech ecosystem. From the shape and size of markets to trends in consumer behaviour, we aim to provide food for thought through informative visuals designed to bring colour and clarity to complex issues facing the industry.

Operators across the continent are moving beyond their traditional role as connectivity providers: they are repositioning themselves as full-stack digital partners for enterprises and governments; deploying AI across networks and customer operations; and opening network capabilities to developers through standardised APIs. This evolution is already reflected in the numbers. In 2025, mobile technologies and services generated $240 billion in economic value across Africa, rising to $290 billion by 2030.

In aviation, demand is increasingly distributed across ground, airside and in-flight environments, making it one of the most strategically important – and potentially commercially valuable – opportunities in GSMA Intelligence's index for network API demand.

This quarterly review of global 5G developments provides a concise, tracker-style deliverable, presenting key metrics and forecasts in an easy-to-access and engaging way. GSMA Intelligence has aggregated the latest data on 5G connections, adoption and coverage, as well as information on network trials/launches and spectrum assignments.

The current spectrum landscape is more dynamic than ever before. The ecosystem today must contend with new spectrum allocation and deployment models, new enterprise competition for spectrum resources, and new demands on existing 2G and 3G spectrum resources. This series leverages the GSMA Intelligence Spectrum Navigator tool to identify key trends and insights.

Last month, China’s three major telecoms operators became the first to launch token-based AI plans, packaging AI usage in a way that resembles traditional mobile data bundles, signalling a broader push by operators to commercialise AI, cloud and compute capabilities. This reflects growing interest among operators in monetising AI by moving beyond internal AI efficiencies and towards commercial AI opportunities. The logic is simple – tap the surging interest in AI and put a meter on it – but the concept goes beyond just offering tokens for cash.

The efforts of operators and their partners translate into a significant economic impact for countries in the EU. In 2025, mobile technologies contributed €1.1 trillion of economic value in the region. However, Europe is at a crucial moment. As the region looks to boost competitiveness and strengthen resilience in an uncertain global environment, the quality of its digital infrastructure will be a key determinant of success.

The 2026 Fifa World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the US is set to capture the attention of football fans around the world, with operators playing a significant role in its success. The event in many ways represents a microcosm of operator strategy: combining infrastructure performance, customer experience and service innovation to meet immediate demand and strengthen long-term competitive positioning.

From a financial perspective, services beyond traditional core telecoms are now a key component of telco revenue growth. This report looks at how far major operators have progressed with revenues beyond traditional core telecoms, the operators leading in terms of revenue diversification and growth beyond connectivity, and the main trends and drivers of growth.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition focuses on analysis of the latest developments for Q1 2026 while providing KPIs for the year to December 2025.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition focuses on analysis of the latest developments for Q1 2026 while providing KPIs for the year to December 2025.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition focuses on analysis of the latest developments for Q1 2026 while providing KPIs for the year to December 2025.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition focuses on analysis of the latest developments for Q1 2026 while providing KPIs for the year to December 2025.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition focuses on analysis of the latest developments for Q1 2026 while providing KPIs for the year to December 2025.

The SpaceX IPO prospectus frames a total addressable market (TAM) of $28.5 trillion across AI, connectivity and space-enabled infrastructure. The mobile TAM is listed at $740 billion. Starlink is positioning direct-to-device (D2D) as a global connectivity layer spanning consumer mobility, verticals and eventually coverage in urban areas. This raises broader questions for the telecoms industry around spectrum ownership, infrastructure economics, neutral-host models and regulatory oversight. This Insight Spotlight assesses these questions and grounds the TAM for mobile in reality.

GSMA Intelligence constantly monitors mobile markets across the world to capture the most recent trends and share the latest available data. This analysis looks at the key revisions made to the mobile connection forecasts over the previous quarter and the drivers underpinning the changes.

As the telecoms industry and wider digital ecosystem evolve at an unprecedented rate, regularly assessing major developments and their implications is more important than ever. This edition of the Industry Checkpoint series focuses on the MVNO segment, highlighting how it has changed in the last six months and the implications.