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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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

Digital infrastructure has been at the heart of social and economic progress in Europe for the better part of the last three decades. Today, nearly half a billion people across Europe are connected to the mobile internet, predominantly through high-speed 4G and 5G networks. Mobile technologies and services now generate around 5% of GDP across Europe, a contribution that amounts to almost $1.2 trillion of economic value added. 5G, in particular, is expected to benefit most sectors of the European economy, adding more than $160 billion of economic value by 2030.

To help navigate the year ahead, we have released a series of reports that highlight the key trends to watch in 2025 and the implications for ecosystem players. The analysis covers five key areas: 5G and network transformation; spectrum; IoT and the wider enterprise market; the digital consumer; and fixed and pay-TV markets.

Understanding mobile operator network transformation strategies is a critical foundation for comprehending the shape of the mobile industry - today and tomorrow. GSMA Intelligence's survey of 100 operators from around the world provides a basis for that, divided into key themes to answer the critical questions facing the mobile ecosystem.

Midway through the 5G era, operators face a growing set of network transformation imperatives. To understand how they are balancing these competing demands, GSMA Intelligence surveyed 100 telcos from around the world. This year's survey includes some of the biggest changes in operator thinking.

The complexity of reorienting network strategy around sustainability means a clear framework is key for prioritising when and where actions should be taken. This report outlines such a framework, offering telecoms operators and their suppliers a 'true north' to guide decision-making.

We examine the economic case for a potential market-based solution where LTGs face a price signal for the usage of the public network. By focusing on a general principle rather than a specific scheme design, we review the potential of payments as an instrument to improve economic efficiency, which could translate into improved consumer and societal outcomes, such as greater network quality, increased innovation and a general improvement in the pace of digitalisation and the benefits this brings to society. We conclude that under the current regulatory framework, the outcome can be sub-optimal due to insufficient incentives for LTGs to use networks efficiently.

Operator interest in GSMA Open Gateway has continued in H2 2024. The API library has also expanded to grow the range of options for developers, vendors, hyperscalers and other aggregators. This latest research looks at the state of the market, recent developments, and examples of APIs in action.

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.

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.

This quarterly series leverages GSMA Intelligence data on network sunsets to identify the key trends and understand the future. The report outlines the latest developments in network sunsets. The data provided here covers network sunsets by year, technology and region. The report also spotlights the momentum in 2G/3G network sunsets in the context of total active 2G/3G networks globally.