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This report examines operators’ engagement at MWC Barcelona 2025, highlighting their announcements, innovations, strategy updates and messaging, in addition to examining implications for telecoms ecosystem players. We show our findings for 18 major operators across 12 areas of focus, including AI, 5G, B2B and B2C, cloud/edge and emerging tech such as APIs and non-terrestrial networks.

For several years, edge compute has been a key part of the 5G value proposition for telecoms operators selling into industries – even before AI. However, AI adds a new dimension to the value of edge through distributed inference.

MWC Barcelona 2025 attracted over 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.

GSMA Intelligence constantly monitors mobile markets across the world to capture the most recent trends and share the latest available data. This analysis looks at the key revisions made to the mobile connection forecasts over the previous quarter and the drivers underpinning the changes.

In the final report of a four-part series, this edition of Telco AI: State of the Market covers one of the most important industry dynamics: AI for networks versus networks for AI.

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?

The competitive environment faced by operators means that staying ahead of the game on customer experience – understanding what people want before they know they want it – is key to success. Amdocs' Customer Experience Insights (CXI) solution provides a pertinent example for a case study.

Sustained cost pressures and commitments to net zero have made energy efficiency a strategic priority for telecoms operators; sustainability registered as a top network transformation priority for operators around the world in 2024. Partnering with a global set of mobile operators, GSMA Intelligence leveraged its independent position and analytical capabilities to launch its Energy Efficiency Analysis and Benchmarking project in 2020. The benchmark is based on fully anonymised, real-world data inputs, with a goal of quantifying network energy consumption, efficiency levels and fuel sources. With each successive year, operator participation in the benchmarking project has grown. The result is a unique, increasingly salient, network-level global data set on energy efficiency, alongside insights into sustainability trends, technologies and best practices.

The concept of a telco to tech-co transition is simple: move to a more agile and slim business model, and diversify to drive growth. However, the reality is more complex. This research provides a view on viable tech-co models and what they look like in practice.

While there are several indicators and metrics in the telecoms sector, there is not yet a comprehensive or holistic metric to measure environmental sustainability. Thus, GSMA Intelligence has developed the Green Network Index (GNI), which proposes a single figure that attempts to summarise overall environmental sustainability for networks and outline an evolutionary path. This recommended figure includes 10 elements, including resource and emission efficiency, renewable energy usage, network performance, availability and vertical enablement, among others.

Today, mobile connectivity is not only a means for people to communicate but is also an important tool for governments and other authorities to stimulate socioeconomic progress, support vulnerable people and build innovative solutions to enhance the well-being of society. Mobile technologies and services now generate around 5.8% of global GDP, a contribution that amounts to $6.5 trillion of economic value added. 5G, in particular, continues to benefit most sectors of the global economy. Mobile’s ability to deliver economic growth relies on spectrum. Today, the mobile ecosystem is already working with governments to plan spectrum for 6G, spectrum which will come into use around the 2030s.

This quarterly review of global 5G developments provides a concise, tracker-style deliverable, presenting key metrics and forecasts in an easy-to-access and engaging way. GSMA Intelligence has aggregated the latest data on 5G connections, adoption and coverage, as well as information on network trials/launches and spectrum assignments.

While mobile operators have been accused of being slow to adopt and fully exploit AI technologies, they have aggressively moved to seize AI’s potential over the past few years.

The recent announcement that the government in Malaysia has granted a second nationwide 5G licence removes what was in effect an infrastructure monopoly and paves the way for a dual-network model. This report highlights how the move to a 5G dual-network model is the right one for customer choice, long-term financial sustainability and Malaysia's competitiveness as a tech and services economy.

Industries worldwide are undergoing significant digital transformation, fundamentally reshaping how businesses operate and interact. At the core of this shift, connectivity is a crucial enabler. While the economic benefits of mobile connectivity are well documented, the broader impact of digital transformation across industries remains less understood. This study offers empirical evidence on how the latest wave of digital technologies is fuelling economic growth.

The GSMA Intelligence Mobile Data Deck offers a fast track to all the essential data you need to know, with key mobile metrics in one easy-to-use deck of charts. The forecasts to 2030 include connections by region and technology generation, smartphone connections and adoption, and mobile operator revenue.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in Sub-Saharan Africa for Q3 2024.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in North America for Q3 2024.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in the Middle East and North Africa for Q3 2024.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in Latin America for Q3 2024.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in Greater China for Q3 2024.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in Europe for Q3 2024.

The Region in Focus series provides an essential quarterly briefing on industry developments, market insights and country KPIs for mobile markets around the world. This edition outlines the key market trends and developments in Asia Pacific for Q3 2024.

Mobile connectivity across Asia Pacific has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past 10 years, with significant improvements in download/upload speeds and latency. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this study explores how quality-of-service (QoS) regulations are evolving in the region.

Apple's announcement in September 2024 that it will incorporate support for Rich Communication Services (RCS) in the iPhone and wider device portfolio was a significant move for the messaging ecosystem. This report looks at the device provisioning through an entitlement server required for telcos to enable RCS for Apple and Android that will come into effect in 2025, in particular for securely enabling the message flow between the two OS platforms.

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.

AI has dominated industry discussion and developments over the past few years. This held true for CES 2025 but with a specific angle: AI delivered from the network edge. The implications of edge AI for operators span several areas - from new business opportunities to networks.