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The perennial challenge for operators is being able to sell to consumers and businesses based on more than just speeds and latencies, which are eventually competed away. This analysis looks at a selection of 5G revenue models used by operators in the consumer and enterprise domains. What has worked? What hasn’t? Each model is compared according to a common template to give a view of the business impact.

Many AI announcements in Q1 2026 focused on telecoms operators and partners building out sovereign capabilities to satisfy national requirements around data residency, compute and LLMs. Meanwhile, investment in agentic AI build-outs has extended beyond networks and software to machines, drones, cars and other industrial assets – so-called ‘physical AI’. As well as recent developments from the telco AI space and the Telco AI tracker, this edition provides a deep dive on the implications of the growth of on-device AI.

On-device AI is the next frontier for AI deployments in consumer and enterprise segments. Use cases include AI-based search and personal assistants, image analytics on a smartphone, AI-assisted driving and navigation in cars, industrial applications such as automated guided vehicles, and improved IoT analytics. This has implications for the device world and major tech companies whose business models depend on consumer time on the internet and digital platforms. It also matters for operators, given the ripple effect of AI-driven data traffic on mobile and fibre networks, and the direct revenue opportunity.

Global Mobile Trends 2026 highlights the opportunities and innovations ahead, as well as the challenges facing the mobile industry and beyond. Covering topics including AI, 5G, autonomous networks, devices, security, quantum, satellites, energy innovation and eSIM, the report focuses on what matters in 2026 and the implications for the industry. The latest edition of Global Mobile Trends delivers expert insights into the key trends that will define the mobile ecosystem in 2026 and beyond. Backed by GSMA Intelligence’s industry-leading research and data, the report provides an authoritative look at the forces shaping the next wave of connectivity and innovation.

Initially deployed for niche use cases, the entitlement server (ES) has expanded to become the intermediary between mobile network infrastructure and the universe of devices. It authenticates a number of services, including RCS messaging, eSIM, network slices and satellite connectivity. The investment logic for the ES is strengthened by clear cost savings and revenue opportunities post deployment. Operators should consider a strategy for monetisation and identity management based on ES deployment.

Malaysia is emerging as one of Southeast Asia’s most strategically important digital economies, underpinned by strong government support, rising enterprise technology investment and one of the region’s most advanced 5G rollouts. 5G adoption in Malaysia now at around 50% of the mobile customer base, meaning the country has the infrastructure underpinning to drive enterprise transformation.

eSIM technology can help solve a number of issues for low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN) as they scale into large-scale deployments. These issues include the higher cost and complexity of provisioning devices with physical SIM cards, device and lifecycle management, and higher opex due to required human intervention. The greater the adoption and spread of LPWAN, the greater the operational challenges for IoT service providers – but eSIM can address most of these challenges.

This report delves into the latest trends in service assurance, using insights from a GSMA Intelligence operator survey. It reveals how operators are heavily invested in service assurance and process automation, but gaps persist.

Business challenges, technology priorities and buying behaviour vary significantly by industry, customer size, technology maturity and geography. Operators should more finely segment and prioritise specific customer segments and tailor go-to-market strategies and value propositions accordingly.

GSMA Intelligence has benchmarked regulatory readiness for connected vehicles across 15 markets, using key indicators such as the presence of V2X policies and spectrum allocation for safety and non-safety ITS applications. The assessment reveals an average index score of 84 and a fragmented landscape with different levels of readiness for connected-vehicles deployment. Despite the promising opportunities, significant challenges remain, including those related to connectivity technologies, spectrum allocation, safety, privacy and security. Addressing these issues will require a number of regulatory frameworks to be developed and refined.

The definitive guide to the biggest shifts shaping mobile, AI and telecoms. How will AI reshape telecoms? What’s next for 5G, satellites and enterprise networks?

This report focuses on the increasing investment by mobile operators and service providers on super-apps, where legacy mobile banking, payments and messaging apps and more are subsumed into one all-inclusive app. With new technology, super-apps today can feature a core stack with 'mini-apps' that are layered on for quick development and rollout. This gives a lot of flexibility and speed for operators to build out ecosystem partnerships and bring new services to market fast, thereby increasing their revenue generation potential.

Bharti Airtel has trialled and subsequently deployed a new technology for wireless backhaul. The technology, free-space optical communications (FSOC), has been pioneered by Taara - a division of X, the Moonshot Factory of Alphabet. This case-study report explains FSOC, outlines Bharti Airtel's deployment of the technology, and assesses FSOC's viability as an alternative transport solution.

Private 5G is growing at an impressive rate as enterprises are increasingly engaging ecosystem players, including telcos and systems integrators, to set up private wireless networks. Industry attention is increasingly focused on filling the gaps in the private wireless proposition, and in this sense, this is also a maturing industry segment. In 2024, the private network opportunity will become increasingly attractive while momentum continues to build, with multiple vendors further increasing their investments. But the value points are shifting away from radios and mobile cores, which are now table stakes, towards the distributed edge and seamless orchestration of workloads across enterprise IT/OT environments.

For 5G monetisation, the primary challenge is to drive a higher price premium for tariffs linked to content or speed, with consumers being willing to pay and sustain this level of payment over time. This comes down to people feeling 5G delivers something new or better than what is possible using an existing 4G service. This analysis shows that FWA and speed-linked tariffs are the best means of doing that, with content-linked offers a more market-specific play.

An emerging area of focus for net zero is energy production and its supply to the power grid. Virtual power plants offer mobile operators opportunities for more stable power capacity, more efficient use of renewables, and a revenue stream from frequency balancing and power sales.

New chipset designs must be made with sustainability as a bedrock principle. This report examines the rationale and urgency behind the sustainability push, how compute efficiencies translate into energy reductions, and how competitive activity is set to accelerate among chipset designers and producers to improve power efficiency.

Edge computing plays a vital role in enabling digital transformation. Understanding its deployment status, benefits and challenges is key to unlocking new use cases and revenue opportunities across the value chain.

Technology-neutral spectrum licensing (also referred to as technology neutrality) is crucial to allow mobile operators to refarm spectrum used for legacy networks (2G and 3G) for 4G and 5G services, at a pace driven by market demand. This report takes a closer look at the benefits of technology-neutral licences.