MWC26 is in full swing and the entire industry is now sharing its innovations, pain points, and, of course, adapting to NVIDIA’s broader telco strategy. Almost every relevant exhibitor is announcing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) product or trial, while the industry tries to find use cases for Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) at the edge. But it’s the absence of major 6G announcements that is the most interesting theme.
ABI Research analysts will be attending Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 in Barcelona on March 2nd-March 5th to get a glimpse at the biggest innovations shaping the technology sector. In this blog, our analysts share their top expectations for the show, covering connectivity, Internet of Things (IoT), and digital security.
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Contributing Analysts: Jake Saunders, VP, Asia-Pacific & Advisory Services; Dimitris Mavrakis, Senior Research Director; Larbi Belkhit, Senior Analyst; Sam Bowling, Industry Analyst
ABI Research’s telco clients require hard data to formulate their Go-to-Market (GTM) strategy and uncover the most promising opportunities. 5G network slicing is one of those opportunities that the industry is sizing up. To quantify the slicing opportunity, we published our Network Slicing market data in early November 2025, the first update since 3Q 2023.
The ABI Research team has been traveling for the past few months, meeting with clients (including Ericsson, Nokia, NVIDIA, and Intel), and having deep discussions on the state of the telecommunications industry and its future. This blog summarizes a few of these findings/trends and how we expect the market to evolve going forward.
5G Standalone (SA) networks offer significant connectivity upgrades from 4G and other legacy standards. Notably, private 5G enables enterprises to support mission- and safety-critical applications, such as industrial robotics or remote surgeries. Although 5G SA networks make significant improvements to security compared to previous mobile generations, malicious actors continue to evolve their tactics. For 5G Non-Standalone (NSA) networks, a hybridized model creates a security landscape with significant complexity, with cross-correlation of threat indicators critical to tackling attacks.
Have we seen the demise of telco email services? At first glance, it looks like that is fast-approaching. Many telcos have shuttered their email platforms due to declining revenue and competition from cloud-based alternatives. But ABI Research believes that there is another path forward, with third-party email providers playing an essential role. Transitioning telco-branded consumer email services to a credible third-party platform can strike the balance between cost and customer management, while also providing opportunities for revenue generation.
Telecommunications market research is more essential than ever in 2025. The industry is undergoing rapid change, shaping how networks are managed, services are delivered, and customers choose a telco partner. Mobile ecosystem players that fail to pivot accordingly risk missing out on new monetization opportunities and getting leapfrogged by the competition. Qualitative, quantitative, and competitive analyses help industry stakeholders identify the latest telecom trends, gain strategic recommendations, and benchmark against their competitors.