Service performance visibility: exploring global views on SLAs and enterprise success

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.

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.