The halls were packed, the production value was high and the on-site catering was expensive: in short, there were very few surprises
The geopolitical tensions between Europe and the US were evident throughout
For a Europe-based telecoms conference, we heard a surprising amount of reaction to the geopolitical and market shifts driven forward by the US as opposed to an agenda defined on the continent’s own terms. Following the recent change of leadership in the White House, MWC25 took place against a different – and for some speakers a worrying or unpredictable – political backdrop. The spectre of US tech companies and politicians certainly loomed large, with panel sessions questioning what Europe must do to create its own champions, boost growth and compete. As some embraced the new approach the US is taking, even demanding the EU follow suit to keep up, others cautioned about rising geopolitical tensions as a result of ongoing conflicts and now, hostile tariffs.
Despite these competing anxieties, the keynote session that sat FCC Chair Brendan Carr (Chair, FCC) next to Henna Virkkunen (EVP, EC) was poorly attended and offered relatively few new insights on the shifting nature of the relationship between the EU and the US. Perhaps that was a reflection of post-lunch hour fatigue, but perhaps it was a (reasonable) reflection of where big shifts in tech and telecoms policy will really come from in the next few years: the White House, DOGE and the lobbying agendas of Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta and Microsoft.
While the familiar calls for deregulation and simplification were there, little was said from the EC about how it intends to implement them
Given the divisiveness of both Elon Musk and Donald Trump, Deutsche Telekom’s Tim Höttges’s calls for a European DOGE didn’t go down particularly well – even if the mounting regulatory burden in Europe is now a well established fact. Across the stages, operators made the usual calls for deregulation and consolidation to help drive scale, lower costs and spur investment. Called into doubt however is whether the asks of some of the largest operators for deregulation are actually achievable when you have operators with presences in different Member States with conflicting incentives – Telefónica is an incumbent in Spain, but an access seeker in Germany reliant on regulated wholesale inputs.
Frustratingly, the EC gave little away on its plans for the implementation of some of the principles set out in the recent Competitiveness Compass and 2025 work programme. While we heard that the bloc would aim to give the same deference to innovation and investment as it does regulation moving forward, any specific updates on changes or redirections in policy, including in relation to Virkkunen’s repeated ambition to cut red tape, were left unsaid. We’ll have to wait for the review of the horizontal and non-horizontal merger guidelines and the preparation of a Digital Networks Act to fill in the blanks.
AI was prolific, and not always in a positive way
AI was quite literally everywhere, however it felt forced in places, contrived even, with some ‘innovations’ on display (and a few questionable company straplines) potentially risking undermining the more viable, real-world use cases for the technology. In regard to these real-world use cases though, significant new developments were few and far between. Leaders in AI were more concerned with the lack of investment in Europe, citing the absence of a single market as a reason for this. Whether the EU can compete with the US and China in AI is still an unanswered question, but a number of delegates did highlight the use of open-source data as a potential catalyst for growth. The “AI race” between China and the US led to some heated discussions with some foreseeing US AI supremacy and others calling for a focus on the potential global benefits of the complementary nature of the developments taking place in both countries.
The buzz around satellite reflected the industry’s own interest in harnessing space-based technologies
Satellite connectivity strengthened its position at this year’s conference, reflecting the evolving landscape of mobile connectivity and perhaps a widening recognition that stubborn coverage and usage gaps will not be closed without it. The sector has undergone a transformation in recent years, seeing significant investment and mult-orbit launches, which have delivered more affordable and reliable services for consumers. Its potential for digital inclusion even managed to provide moments of respite to the somewhat adversarial posturing between European telecoms and US big tech. With EU public investment in, and private partnership with, domestic satellite firms on the rise, some of the earlier anxieties around the strength of Starlink and potentially Amazon’s Project Kuiper appear to be on a downswing. There was also considerable interest specifically in the promise of nascent direct-to-device (D2D) services both on stage and in operator announcements, even if there were differing views on whether their role would be confined to plugging not-spots in rural areas and providing a back-up solution during emergency situations, or more optimistically becoming an integral piece of the mobile industry puzzle. Speakers were nevertheless in agreement on the role of policymakers in enabling D2D to take off, pointing to the US – not usually one to regulate quickly – as having established a framework that should inspire other countries.
Online safety, sustainability, and even ‘fair share’ were notably absent
Aside from a moving presentation from KPN on the proactive work it’s doing to address online shaming, the social value that the industry generates also took a back seat. Panels on child safety drew small crowds and few insights while digital inclusion matters rarely saw the (fluorescent) light of day within the halls. With AI as well as APIs so clearly top of mind for the GSMA, this also forced other – and supposedly top – priorities such as sustainability down the pecking order. Given the environmental benefit promised by legacy network shutdowns in the coming years and the investment made by operators in reducing their carbon footprints and building trust in digital services, we had expected a more unified effort to communicate how the sector’s impact is greater than the sum of its towers.
We had also braced ourselves to hear more on fair share (a prominent theme of the 2023 conference), particularly given Vodafone Group’s pre-event call for a ‘Framework for Responsible Use of Networks’, but if anything it functioned as something of a punching bag for its adversaries, who probably discussed it more than its proponents outside of the official programme and pointed to it as a misguided notion of the industry.
Finally, while never going to make it on the banner of any stand, we did hear more than one operator talk about simply improving connectivity rather than feeling the need to talk up 6G, what flavour of AI they think consumers will embrace, or even whether they should be reinventing themselves as a ‘techco’. We can take some comfort from that since ultimately it’s fast, reliable, ubiquitous connectivity that will underpin all of the glitz we saw on display.
