Insights and emerging trends from a week in Barcelona
Martin Creaner, WBBA Director General, March 2025
If there was one theme that stood out during MWC in Barcelona 2025 it was that AI is everywhere and it’s shaping the way the industry globally is looking to generate efficiencies and drive innovative business models.
The ‘app-less’ AI Phone by Deutsche Telekom and Perplexity was one standout for me, allowing users to perform tasks like making reservations and shopping through voice interactions. As was Opera's Agentic Browser allowing users to instruct it in natural language to complete actions like purchasing items or booking tickets. While at the network level, Huawei’s announcement of their AI WAN for 5.5G Networks resonated well with the WBBA Net5.5G vision for a seamless, high quality end-to-end high bandwidth, low latency network, stretching from the access network to the datacenter network.
These announcements underscore the growing integration of AI across various devices and services, and confirmed what many in the industry already know, AI is not just an emerging trend, it’s a fundamental strategic pillar in the Telco industry.
5G remained a hot topic at the event with a strong focus on operational efficiency and identifying ways to improve customer experience by leveraging automation. It was not hard to find operators who have been disappointed with the ROI they have received from 5G, and a lot of the discussion in Barcelona was on how to monetize 5G (and possibly 5G-Advanced) more effectively. Private 5G was another top conversation and we saw many verticals such as utilities and defense announcing the adoption of private 5G alongside leading vendors. Surprisingly, there was almost no talk from anyone on the topic of 6G and I don’t expect that to change until 5G monetization improves.
Although there was little mention of 6G there were interesting discussions around how next-generation communication standards need to think more broadly and to accommodate the increasing linkages between different communications technologies (mobile, WiFi, Satellite, fixed, etc..) and the evolving demands of AI and the Metaverse.
At the WBBA Broadband Development Congress event we looked at all aspects of how the broadband industry is going from strength to strength, accommodating the massive demands of AI while also helping to address the inequality of broadband access across the world.
There were several compelling and thought-provoking Thought Leadership White Papers published by the WBBA and our partners. The white paper on the current and potential uses of AI during the pre-deployment phases of broadband networks was well received as was the launch of the ‘Gigacity Index 2025’. This ranks cities from 30 countries across the globe in terms of their broadband sophistication. With gigabit broadband services pivotal to delivering next-generation internet services, and establishing a premium business environment, the first issue of the Index assesses cities such as Singapore, Shanghai, New York, Madrid and Zurich, ranking their broadband capabilities and highlighting the policies and investment approaches that led them to becoming Gigacities.
The WBBA continued to help move the industry forward with the launch of the latest Net5.5G white paper that focused on use cases from across five continents which demonstrate successful Net5.5G scenarios and functionalities from operators, carriers and other key industry players. This collection of use cases showed how the Net5.5G architecture is already being deployed by many operators and stakeholders all over the world.
If you’re interested in learning more, all our WBBA white papers can be found on our WBBA Knowledge Centre here.