The usual signs were there. The taxi ranks were odious and the traffic disastrous (so many road works!) Most clients were pleased with hall footfall – halls 2 and 3 were tricky to navigate, as always.
Each of you will have your own opinion, whether you were visiting, exhibiting, speaking or commentating. While I loved spending time with clients, influencers, colleagues and friends, the consensus from people I spoke to said things felt a little flat.
Given the incredibly tough trading conditions over the past couple of years, this is no great surprise. We have seen a huge amount of consolidation across the industry. Most global telcos are struggling to grow, so vendors are struggling to sell. While AI offers hope, one of its most meaningful contributions is to drive simplicity from complexity to optimise efficiency across telco operations. Extremely valid and a worthy profitability preserver, but not an especially compelling long-term growth strategy.
In case you’re wondering how the AI hype cycle will sustain itself, just give me a “G” a “P” and a “U.” Excitement around having much more compute power at the cell site or network edge has incredible potential for new services and applications – the industry just needs to decide where to focus. I think I’ve heard this story before…
MWC 2025 was a neat reminder that most telcos and vendors continue to find things tough. The industry just needs growth – top line revenue growth from new services and new innovation. We all need some excitement.
I may sound downbeat, but I’m not. I do think we need to reflect on whether our expectations are reasonable. We have been blighted by hype (those telecoms PR professionals have a lot to answer for). Execution is complicated and expensive – it’s going to take time.
Mobile is a mature market, but it is permeating new verticals. There is enterprise growth for 5G private networks for example. 5G SA deployment is accelerating globally, so too is the potential super low latency, reliable, high bandwidth services. The conference provided clear evidence of progress in these areas. So come on developer community, your stage is set. Flex those APIs are show us what you’ve got!
I loved the familiarity, I loved the bustle, and I loved the connections with so many people who were there. MWC is a huge undertaking. It requires months of planning and dedication. I take my hat off to the GSMA for riding a very turbulent time and rebuilding a global platform which we can all enjoy every year (even if it does kick the stuffing out of us all).
Safe travels home everyone!
