Race to the top: assessing and accelerating drone readiness in the UK, the G7 and other leading nations

Over the past decade, mobile operators in Africa have invested significantly to expand network coverage and capacity. Despite this investment, the region has not seen the same level of growth in the adoption and use of mobile internet. To help address this, in 2024, the GSMA launched the first Digital Africa Index (DAI). This provides a comprehensive assessment that helps countries in Africa understand how advanced they are in integrating digital technologies into their societies and economies. It also offers guidance on the interventions required to accelerate growth. This report accompanies the launch of the third edition of the Digital Africa Index.

B2B has emerged as a strategic growth area for operators and the wider tech/digital ecosystem. As the digital transformation of vertical sectors accelerates, gaining insights directly from enterprises is key. GSMA Intelligence surveyed more than 430 enterprises across six countries in Africa, from 10 vertical sectors, to gain insight into their digital transformation. The research focused on strategic objectives, investment plans, use of technology, deployment challenges, supplier decisions, tech sovereignty, and policy and regulation.

This edition of the Industry Checkpoint series focuses on digital industries, highlighting how the market has changed in the last six months and its implications. The report considers four major developments: European operators intensifying their activities in sovereign cloud services; mobile networks growing their relevance with the emerging drone/UAV industry; operators in Japan accelerating their work in the physical AI space; and robotaxi services preparing for launch in Europe.