- Operators that succeed in OTT are those that focus on customer needs and build services that extend the connectivity platform
- Quantum computing needs scalable qubits
- AI-RAN Alliance stands alone for now
MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, BARCELONA – AI was the unquestioned star of MWC but other key tech trends stood out as symbols of where the industry is headed. As we head home to our various abodes, we leave you with our top trends from the show in no particular order.
New business models
Operators have been pursuing new business models for more than a decade, with mixed results — mostly bad. Revenue margins are thin for commodity data and voice services, while hyperclouds and over-the-top (OTT) providers reap fat profit on services delivered on that connectivity.
It makes sense for operators to try to get in on that sweet OTT action. But most of the time, they fail. We've been curious for some time why diversification often fails and sometimes succeeds so we talked with a few operators, vendors and systems integrators to get their perspective on what makes the difference between success and failure.
Our sources say that operators that succeed in OTT are those that focus on customer needs and build services that extend the connectivity platform. A big barrier to success is that the service provider industry is built on replicability — finding formulas that succeed and doing them over and over — while OTT and cloud services require innovation and flexibility.
AI-RAN Alliance remains unchallenged
There was some speculation before the show that a splinter group might emerge to challenge the AI-RAN Alliance, an organization spearheaded by SoftBank and Nvidia that launched one year ago. The thinking was that Nvidia’s dominance could threaten the ability of other chipset companies to influence how the technology evolves and therefore, rivals might want to pursue their own organization.
However, the alliance assured Fierce that it remains “technology-agnostic, ensuring that no single platform dictates AI-driven RAN advancements.
“While some members leverage GPUs, other alternatives, including Intel solutions and custom application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), play a crucial role in AI operations. Each solution is optimized for different applications, reinforcing the Alliance's commitment to an open and inclusive ecosystem that supports a wide range of AI and RAN technologies,” said AI-RAN Alliance Marketing Steering Committee Vice Chair Yashar Nezami in a statement provided to Fierce.
In the end, we didn’t see any signs of a rival AI-RAN group emerging. However, it’s worth noting that both before and during meetings at the show, some wireless industry stakeholders – like Verizon and Intel – told us they don’t have any immediate plans to join the alliance because they prefer those efforts be steered directly at organizations like the 3GPP and O-RAN Alliance.
Yes, 6G is coming, but it didn’t overwhelm the conversation
We didn’t expect a huge amount of attention on 6G during MWC, but given the history of hype and trade shows, we couldn’t rule it out.
Generally speaking, the show gave 6G about as much attention as it needs at this point for a technology that is just now emerging as a study item at 3GPP. People are thinking about 6G and there’s still plenty of debate as to how sweeping the changes will be. But operators around the world are still grappling with 5G standalone and eyeing their 5G Advanced deployments, so 6G can just sit tight for the time being, thank you very much.
The race is on … for scalable qubits
Peter Vetter, President of Bell Labs Core Research at Nokia, gave us the scoop on what to expect in the next 10 years when it comes to the biggest innovations vs. the reality of implementation. You won’t be surprised to read that one is quantum computing, but for quantum computing to be useful, we are going to need scalable qubits.
“If you really want to benefit from the quantum, you need millions of those qubits, and that is an enormously hard problem,” said Vetter. “Qubit quantum states are very hard to maintain — [they need] very, very low temperature… say 25 millikelvin or 40 millikelvin. The stability and time are limited, and that means that several of the qubit concepts out there, they don't scale well to the hundreds.”
But don’t be dismayed. According to Vetter, Nokia Bell Labs is onto something. “We have a qubit concept that has that promise to be very [scalable]. It’s actually very stable,” he said. “There's only one other company that has this, and this is in the media and it’s Microsoft. We are neck-and-neck with Microsoft.”
Agentic AI and the rise of the inference market
Speaking of neck-and-neck, we aren’t sure which was more popular: agentic AI discussions or sneakers on the show floor?
For sure, agentic AI represents a significant evolution in AI, moving beyond traditional language models toward more dynamic and autonomous systems. Cisco’s Kevin Wollenweber, SVP and GM for Engineering, told us that the potential for AI to expand from data center-based training to more interactive and distributed applications means that agentic AI can be used for creating more intelligent, reasoning-capable systems that operate with greater autonomy.
Wollenweber cited the CEO of Groq, who predicted that the inference market could be 10 to 20 times larger than the training market, indicating substantial growth potential for more adaptive AI systems.
Wollenweber also sees agentic AI as a critical shift toward physical AI — systems that can operate outside traditional computational environments, potentially pushing AI capabilities closer to end users and network edges. This involves developing AI that can reason, make decisions and potentially interact more dynamically with real-world environments.
Rumor mill fact check
The Day 3 rumor rampant on the show floor was that MWC 2026 was moving location! What?! No! Where!? India, said someone! Berlin, hoped another! It was like a bad game of telephone, ironically. Alas, it was just a whole lot of confusion, potentially due to the launch of an MWC25 in Doha, Qatar, speculated a spokesperson for GSMA. Chill. The show's not going anywhere. We'll be back next year and are excited to see the new Hall Zero.
Read our show wraps below:
MWC: Seen and heard on Day 1 - ‘Slow is the new down’
MWC: Seen and heard on Day 2 - ‘I just need time to think’
MWC: Seen and heard on Day 3 – ‘This is no longer just a mobile show’
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