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Growth in AI consumption is creating commercial opportunities across the AI value chain. Over the past year, investment in AI has increasingly extended towards revenue-generating services and enterprise propositions, with operators assuming a broader range of roles across the AI value chain. Telcos in Asia Pacific are particularly active across multiple layers of the AI value chain. They account for 43% of those participating in the infrastructure layer and 38% in the model layer. This position reflects the combination of large and linguistically diverse markets, government-backed national and sovereign AI agendas, expanding AI infrastructure investment, and the scale of leading regional operators and technology ecosystems.

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in digital services, the capabilities required to participate online are evolving. Beyond basic digital skills, people need the confidence, critical thinking and safety awareness to navigate AI-enabled systems, assess information and access opportunities. This latest research from GSMA Intelligence explores how digital literacy needs are changing in the AI era. It examines the approaches that can help build the skills required for meaningful participation in the digital economy.

Business messaging remains a cornerstone of the mobile ecosystem, even as it transforms. Operators and their partners have an opportunity to shape an integrated, rich and trusted messaging environment that meets modern user and enterprise expectations. Broad reach, robust security and seamless user experience will be pivotal to messaging’s success over the next five years and beyond. This report outlines the industry outlook for innovation and disruption in business messaging, and highlights the strategic imperatives for mobile operators.

Developments in AI this quarter highlight telecoms operators moving beyond connectivity to offer bundled infrastructure for enterprises. Sovereign infrastructure is further strengthening their role in markets with local data requirements, making partnerships and focused industry solutions key to success.

This white paper, using evidence from a GSMA Intelligence survey of operators in Asia Pacific, explains why traditional perimeter-based security is no longer enough and what operators need to do to build a more resilient, architecture-led approach. It covers how AI is changing the threat landscape; why expanding attack surfaces require stronger governance; and how native security, depth defence, dual security operation centre (SOC) operations and AI-enabled tools can help operators protect critical networks.

This latest edition of the GSMA Open Gateway research series provides an update on the state of the market, recent developments and examples of Open Gateway in action. The market is increasingly moving away from operator-specific API exposure and towards platform-mediated distribution, where developers prefer a single integration point with global reach. This changes the commercial dynamic for the ecosystem.

With a 33% rise in international visitors this year, MWC Shanghai speaks to China’s influence and gravitational pull on the regional Asian tech economy and reciprocal demand from buyers to see and be seen on the MWC stage in an already busy event calendar. The analysis here highlights the key takeaways and implications from the meetings, summits and announcements at the event.

The key takeaways in Q2 2026 are that satellite connectivity is shifting into a major strategic battleground and sovereignty is now a crucial question. A proposed SpaceX IPO at a very high valuation underscores expectations that Starlink will evolve beyond infrastructure into a direct competitor to mobile operators, particularly in mobile and AI-linked connectivity markets. However, the analysis suggests the realistic near-term revenue opportunity is far smaller than the headline figures imply, reinforcing that growth depends on execution of next-generation satellite deployments rather than total market substitution.

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.

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.

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.

As of Q1 2026, Starlink continues to maintain a significant gap in its deployed capacity versus the rest of the field. It has now deployed over 75% of its initial constellation. Meanwhile, Amazon's recent agreement to acquire Globalstar reinforces the trend of consolidation among satellite companies to address scale challenges. For operators, satellite capability is emerging as both a defensive necessity and competitive differentiator, positioning NTNs as a dual lever for ARPU uplift and churn reduction.

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.

Amazon has agreed to acquire Globalstar in a deal valued at approximately $11.6 billion. It has indicated that it expects the deal to close in 2027, subject to regulatory clearance. This would pave the way for Amazon’s own direct-to-device satellite service launching in 2028. The deal will firmly place Amazon as the main competitor of Starlink in the burgeoning D2D space. But it also has ramifications for other satellite companies and telecoms operators.

Monetisation is the key objective in 2026 for telcos on APIs (as with other business lines) and their distribution partners, with the implications for go-to-market strategies being different depending on the API and buyer. It is important to quantify the commercial potential and buying likelihood of APIs across different sectors of the economy to accurately orient supply. To that end, GSMA Intelligence has developed the Open Gateway Demand Index, which aggregates a range of metrics to help understand where demand lies and the commercial opportunity for network APIs in each sector.

Cybersecurity is a shared responsibility, requiring operators to adopt a holistic approach that integrates technology, personnel and processes. To evaluate the cybersecurity governance and strategies of operators, GSMA Intelligence undertook a global survey involving 100 operators worldwide. This report provides an overview of the cybersecurity governance and strategies of operators in Asia Pacific.

Around 105,000 people from 207 countries attended MWC Barcelona 2026. The show attracted more than 2,900 exhibitors, including telecoms operators, vendors and firms from across the broader technology ecosystem. This report examines the key announcements and innovations that took centre stage, what came as a surprise and what it all means for telecoms and the wider TMT industry.