There’s Life in the Old Dog Yet—What to Expect from Enterprise Connectivity & Private Cellular at Mobile World Congress 2025

While the telco world is gearing up for the 2025 edition of Mobile World Congress (MWC), the mobile ecosystem faces a seismic shift: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and computing are becoming increasingly important, overtaking connectivity as the key source of innovation within the mobile industry (read our series of blogs here and here). The increasing dominance of compute over connectivity adds another layer of complexity to the challenges already facing telco industry players: As growth in the consumer domain has remained largely stagnated in recent years, unlocking the enterprise domain becomes a more urgent strategic necessity. The shift toward compute-driven services is reshaping enterprise requirements, altering value chains, and redistributing market influence. Hyperscalers and technology vendors, with established positions in cloud and compute infrastructure, are expanding their enterprise reach, intensifying competition.

With MWC 2025 just around the corner, it is time to look at what the show will have in store for enterprise connectivity and what announcements to expect from the ecosystem.

Telcos face structural challenges in adapting to this landscape, including legacy operational models, slower innovation cycles, and the need to align with evolving enterprise demands. Consequently, the question of how to successfully unlock the enterprise connectivity opportunity will remain a key focus at industry events such as MWC.

Despite being pronounced dead by a few observers, private cellular networks will continue to play a role in telcos’ ambitions to unlock the enterprise opportunity—with a few important announcements expected at this year’s MWC. As the technology moves into a more practical, post-hype deployment phase, these announcements may not be as flashy, but will be crucial for driving real-world commercial deployments, focusing on specific use cases, rather than the underlying technology.

In preparation for MWC, telco infrastructure vendor Nokia just this week launched an AI-enabled on-premises sensor fusion suite for Industry 4.0 use cases and contextual awareness, called MX Context. This solution enhances accuracy and situational awareness by fusing multi-modal sensory data, including position, accelerometer, gyroscope, sound, and video analytics. AI-driven object detection, pose estimation, and inference provide real-time plant safety insights for better decision-making at the operations center. The announcement of MX Context underscores the growing focus on private cellular networks as an enabler of advanced industrial applications, shifting the conversation from connectivity itself to the business-critical outcomes it supports.

At the same time, ABI Research expects to see a range of announcements between telco carriers and leading global System Integrators (SIs) that center around the provision of concrete industrial-grade use cases that are enabled by a private cellular network. ABI Research forecasts that more than 75% of private cellular network revenue comes from deployments within energy generation, logistics & warehousing, manufacturing, and transportation. In line with this, the solutions are expected to focus on (connected) workers’ safety, predictive maintenance, and autonomous equipment use cases within these environments.

While other industry players have tried to launch use case-centric offerings on their own, they largely remained below expectations, as they could not attract the wide ecosystem of partners from different backgrounds that would be necessary to make this endeavor successful. To effectively compete in an increasingly compute-driven enterprise landscape, telco industry actors must prioritize the following strategic actions.

First, telcos should strengthen their partnerships with hyperscalers and global SIs. It is becoming increasingly clear, by now, that enterprise connectivity opportunity extends beyond networks—it requires integration with compute, cloud, and AI capabilities. Telcos must shift from competing with hyperscalers and global SIs like NTT DATA, Kyndryl, Tech Mahindra, and Wipro to actively collaborating with them. This can be achieved by establishing use case factories and/ or providing the cellular network as a platform that enables software developers to deliver enterprise-grade applications.

Second, telco players should leverage the opportunities of AI and Machine Learning (ML) to simplify network management and operations, removing complexities for enterprises using private cellular networks. AI-driven network automation can optimize performance, detect anomalies, and dynamically adjust resources, while predictive analytics can proactively identify and address issues before they occur. By automating network configuration and orchestration, telcos can make deployment and scaling easier for enterprises. Additionally, AI-driven analytics can provide actionable insights tailored to specific use cases, and AI-powered self-service platforms allow enterprises to manage performance with minimal technical expertise. Integrating AI with enterprise systems ensures seamless support for digital transformation, enabling automation and real-time decision-making. This approach allows telcos to deliver efficient, self-optimizing networks that add value, while reducing operational complexity for enterprises.

Third, telco industry players should provide all of this in an easy-to-navigate interface that allows enterprises with no telco expertise to configure the private cellular network and monitor the performance of certain use cases. By incorporating low-code/no-code platforms, telcos can enable enterprises to configure, manage, and integrate connectivity solutions with minimal technical effort. These platforms would provide intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces and pre-built templates for common enterprise use cases. As enterprises expect unified management interfaces that provide real-time visibility and control across connectivity, compute, and application layers, private cellular solution providers should take lessons from industry peers from the Operations Support System (OSS)/Business Support System (BSS) sphere—particularly Amdocs and Netcracker—as these have experience in enabling the navigation of single-pane-of-glass interfaces for complicated telco operation and BSSs. Consequently, telcos should provide their solution in a single-pane of-glass architecture that allows businesses to monitor network performance, security, AI-driven analytics, and cloud resources from one centralized dashboard.