All research

As 5G standalone and 5G-Advanced mature across North America, mobile connectivity is becoming strategic infrastructure for AI, cloud services, industrial automation and new enterprise applications. Continued investment in mobile networks will be critical to improve productivity, strengthen resilience and maintain the region’s long-term competitiveness. In 2025, mobile technologies and services generated $1.9 trillion in economic value across North America, equivalent to 5.8% of regional GDP.

Sovereignty has moved from being a strategy position on paper to actual deployment plans. Most operators are building selectively at the data and infrastructure layers, where they already have assets. As well as outlining why sovereignty matters now and presenting global and regional landscapes, this research examines telco approaches to sovereignty so far and the priorities ahead for both operators and governments.

Digital trust has become a strategic delivery mechanism for building digital nations. Countries that build confidence in digital infrastructure, services and institutions will be better placed to convert digitalisation into adoption, innovation, investment and socioeconomic impact. To explain how digital trust can be strengthened, this report introduces four interconnected foundations of digital trust. Traditionally viewed as connectivity providers, mobile operators are increasingly contributing to all four trust foundations, making them key enablers of digital trust. 

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.

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.

The Caribbean is entering a pivotal phase in its digital development, where widespread connectivity is increasingly being translated into broader digital transformation. Beyond connectivity, the mobile industry is also enabling digital transformation through the integration of technologies such as 5G, IoT and AI into business processes and public services.

Asia Pacific’s mobile story is moving beyond just coverage. The region’s next challenge is converting connectivity into digital participation, trusted AI-era infrastructure and resilient growth. This report explores how 5G, AI, network APIs, cybersecurity and infrastructure resilience are reshaping operator strategies. It also outlines the policy priorities needed to sustain investment, close the usage gap and strengthen Asia Pacific’s digital economy.

As digital infrastructure becomes increasingly central to key economic and social outcomes, policymakers are placing a greater emphasis on security and resilience. A key development in this context is the European Commission’s proposal to strengthen cybersecurity requirements through an updated regulatory framework – Cybersecurity Act 2 (known as CSA2). This includes provisions that require the removal of critical equipment supplied by designated high-risk vendors from telecoms infrastructure within a defined timeframe. GSMA Intelligence has conducted unique research to assess the cost of removing critical components from high-risk vendors from European telecoms networks.

Financially strong operators are essential to improve network quality, expand coverage, support growth in capacity and deliver new network functionality linked to 5G standalone, AI and beyond. However, over the past decade, structural trends have placed increasing pressure on the industry’s financial foundations. This report is the first in a series that seeks to address a critical evidence gap in the understanding of the financial sustainability of the mobile sector and its main drivers.

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.

European mobile markets are undergoing a structural shift: rising data usage, declining revenue per user, saturating subscriber penetration and sustained investment requirements have made operator scale increasingly important. Europe remains the least concentrated major mobile region in the world, with operators being structurally subscale compared to global peers. This gap has widened during precisely the period when scale matters most.

To aid operators that are evaluating middle-mile transport solutions, GSMA Intelligence has developed the TCO Calculator, based on research and analysis of existing and emerging middle-mile transport solutions across a number of deployment scenarios around the world. The rapid expansion of 5G networks is driving an unprecedented surge in mobile data consumption, which is placing immense pressure on the middle mile. As a result, operators must diversify their product/solution mix for middle-mile transport.

With network and service automation a hallmark of the TM Forum’s work, there was never any doubt as to the predominant theme at this year’s DTW Ignite event in Copenhagen. While AI is impacting nearly every aspect of telecoms networks and services, a key question was how this would be reflected in the event’s keynotes, launches and meetings. Agentic AI played a significant role in this year’s messaging – but, more surprisingly, core network automation garnered outsized attention.

China’s mobile ecosystem is entering a new phase as large-scale 5G deployment gives way to more intelligent, differentiated and resilient digital infrastructure. In 2025, mobile technologies and services generated $1.5 trillion in economic value, equivalent to 7.2% of GDP, while supporting employment, fiscal revenues and economy-wide digital transformation.

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.

Operators across the continent are moving beyond their traditional role as connectivity providers: they are repositioning themselves as full-stack digital partners for enterprises and governments; deploying AI across networks and customer operations; and opening network capabilities to developers through standardised APIs. This evolution is already reflected in the numbers. In 2025, mobile technologies and services generated $240 billion in economic value across Africa, rising to $290 billion by 2030.

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 efforts of operators and their partners translate into a significant economic impact for countries in the EU. In 2025, mobile technologies contributed €1.1 trillion of economic value in the region. However, Europe is at a crucial moment. As the region looks to boost competitiveness and strengthen resilience in an uncertain global environment, the quality of its digital infrastructure will be a key determinant of success.

The 2026 Fifa World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the US is set to capture the attention of football fans around the world, with operators playing a significant role in its success. The event in many ways represents a microcosm of operator strategy: combining infrastructure performance, customer experience and service innovation to meet immediate demand and strengthen long-term competitive positioning.