All research

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.

Many European markets are lagging behind in terms of network quality and the deployment of advanced mobile networks. To quantify the investment required for Europe to meet its 5G goals and regain its global leadership in mobile connectivity, GSMA Intelligence conducted a detailed economic modelling exercise.

Latin America’s mobile markets are transitioning deeper into the data era, where rising data demand, high investment requirements and declining mobile prices have made operator scale increasingly important. This report examines how market structure, consolidation and entry have affected investment, network quality and consumer outcomes across Latin America since 2010.

Direct-to-device (D2D) satellite connectivity has emerged as a notable development in the mobile ecosystem, promising to extend basic mobile services beyond the reach of terrestrial networks. It has the potential to enhance coverage in remote and underserved areas and to provide an additional layer of resilience for emergency communications. While the technology has clear benefits, is advancing rapidly and is attracting significant attention, its practical role remains constrained by fundamental limitations in capacity and spectral efficiency. This report examines the impact of different constellation and spectrum scenarios on D2D’s capabilities.

This report analyses the state of 5G, seven years after its commercial launch, using GSMA Intelligence’s 5G Connectivity Index to benchmark 46 markets across 5G infrastructure and services. It shows broad convergence across the foundation components (coverage, affordability, adoption), but reveals a widening gap on advanced capabilities, including 5G standalone (SA), 5G‑Advanced, uplink performance, fixed wireless access (FWA), IoT and RedCap.

Although significant progress has been made extending network coverage, rural populations remain 28% less likely to use mobile internet than their urban counterparts, and 30% less likely to regularly engage in online services such as messaging, banking and education. This latest research examines how the digital divide affects people living in rural areas, and how governments and regulators can address this challenge.

One of the most important policy areas impacting mobile investment is spectrum policy. This study sets out recent trends in spectrum costs in Europe and analyses the impact of different approaches to spectrum renewals in the next 10 years on both investment and Europe’s economy. Based on the analysis, a number of recommendations are drawn for policymakers.

This report evaluates the impact of mobile money interoperability on adoption, usage and competition. With interoperability now present in more than 90 markets, the study moves beyond binary classifications to assess how different policy models – market-led, regulator-led and voluntary – affect outcomes.

The final report in this series explores how affordability of entry-level, internet-enabled handsets and various data bundles have changed over time, and how affordability impacts different segments of the population.

This fifth report in the series focuses on the barriers people face to adopting mobile internet and using it more, as well as how these differ by country and whether they live in a rural or urban area.

This fourth report in the series goes beyond mobile internet adoption to examine how people actually use mobile internet. It looks at frequency of use, the range of online activities they engage in, and the differences in use across countries and demographics.

This third report in the series examines how network coverage and infrastructure are expanding, and investigates network quality. These factors affect people’s ability to access the internet and their experience when doing so.

This second report in the series explores how mobile internet adoption has evolved since 2015. It examines three areas: the share of the population using mobile internet, the proportion still living outside mobile broadband coverage (the coverage gap), and those who live within mobile broadband coverage but are not yet online (the usage gap).

The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2025 considers the importance of not just mobile broadband coverage but ‘meaningful connectivity’ – users having a safe, satisfying, enriching and productive online experience that is affordable in their context. This is the first in the series and summarises the key findings from the other five publications.

At around 16%, Bangladesh’s spectrum-cost-to-revenue ratio exceeds the Asia Pacific median (10.4%) and is twice as high as the global median (7.7%). High spectrum cost has been shown to negatively impact consumer outcomes, such as network coverage and speeds. Reducing prices by 50% would align spectrum costs closer to the Asia Pacific median at about 12% by 2035, boosting 4G speeds by 17% and enabling 99% 5G coverage, yielding a cumulative $34 billion GDP boost. Aligning costs to the global median of 8% of operators’ revenue would increase 4G speeds by 22% and accelerate 5G rollout further, generating a $45 billion GDP boost.

MWC Shanghai is in the books for another year, having attracted 45,000 visitors (from 12,500 companies), along with 400 exhibitors and partner groups. The numbers were up from the 2024 event by 13% and 92% respectively. This analysis highlights the key takeaways and implications from meetings, summits and announcements at the event – and in particular, whether the progress seen in China can be mapped to other regions.

Government decisions on spectrum pricing continue to impact mobile coverage and speeds. This latest report on spectrum pricing finds spectrum costs have risen sharply as a percentage of revenues, increasing the cost burden on operators and constraining critical network investments.

More people than ever before are now accessing the internet through mobile devices. However, the growth rate at which people are adopting mobile internet has remained flat, and significant digital divides persist. Closing these digital divides brings significant socioeconomic benefits and is more crucial than ever.

While the transformative socioeconomic impacts of digital technologies are well established, a digital divide persists in Africa, where around two thirds of the population do not currently use mobile internet. Against this backdrop, the GSMA has launched the Digital Africa Index - an interactive web tool to support policymakers and regulators.