All research

Operator strategies continue to evolve in the digital era as the telecoms industry seeks to capture new growth opportunities in the consumer and enterprise markets. Assessing innovation and achievements is more important than ever before. GSMA Intelligence's operator case studies provide a concise and consistent way to shine a light on and analyse operators' strategies and business models, as well as how they are launching new services. This edition looks at how gaming is part of Telefónica’s Digital Home strategy, combining connectivity with entertainment and other digital services to deepen customer relationships.

Operator strategies continue to evolve in the digital era as the telecoms industry seeks to capture new growth opportunities in the consumer and enterprise markets. Assessing innovation and achievements is more important than ever before. GSMA Intelligence's operator case studies provide a concise and consistent way to shine a light on and analyse operators' strategies and business models, as well as how they are launching new services. This edition considers how Deutsche Telekom is using digital gaming to make the value of its 5G network tangible to consumers.

Operator strategies continue to evolve in the digital era as the telecoms industry seeks to capture new growth opportunities in the consumer and enterprise markets. Assessing innovation and achievements is more important than ever before. GSMA Intelligence's operator case studies provide a concise and consistent way to shine a light on and analyse operators' strategies and business models, as well as how they are launching new services. This edition examines how gaming supports China Mobile's strategy to expand digital services and revenue beyond connectivity.

As 5G standalone and 5G-Advanced mature across North America, mobile connectivity is becoming strategic infrastructure for AI, cloud services, industrial automation and new enterprise applications. Continued investment in mobile networks will be critical to improve productivity, strengthen resilience and maintain the region’s long-term competitiveness. In 2025, mobile technologies and services generated $1.9 trillion in economic value across North America, equivalent to 5.8% of regional GDP.

Pay-TV markets are seeing an unprecedented evolution, driven by technology investments, shifting consumer behaviour and competition (including from OTT players). This quarterly series outlines the latest market developments and the key trends to watch, charting the period to 2030. The report also provides comprehensive cross-country comparisons at your fingertips, allowing you to identify which markets or technologies will grow the most or how OTT competition will impact the adoption of traditional pay TV.

Fixed markets continue to evolve around the world, with technology investments, competition, M&A and shifting consumer behaviour being major drivers. This quarterly series outlines the latest market developments and the key trends to watch, charting the period to 2030. The report also provides comprehensive cross-country comparisons at your fingertips, allowing you to identify which markets or technologies will grow the most.

Sovereignty has moved from being a strategy position on paper to actual deployment plans. Most operators are building selectively at the data and infrastructure layers, where they already have assets. As well as outlining why sovereignty matters now and presenting global and regional landscapes, this research examines telco approaches to sovereignty so far and the priorities ahead for both operators and governments.

Use of AI agents is set to increase exponentially. But as AI agents become the norm, work alongside humans and make decisions, the need for verifiable, manageable and secure identities becomes critical to ensure digital trust. Identity and access management is not a new business for operators. However, its extension to AI agents brings new opportunities. This report analyses the technical options for AI agent identity, what pioneer operators are doing today, and the future business opportunities.

B2B has emerged as a strategic growth area for operators and the wider tech/digital ecosystem. As the digital transformation of vertical sectors accelerates, gaining insights directly from enterprises is key. GSMA Intelligence surveyed more than 500 enterprises from 10 vertical sectors across the US and Canada to gain insight into their digital transformation. The research focused on strategic objectives, investment plans, use of technology, deployment challenges, supplier decisions, tech sovereignty, and policy and regulation.

This edition of the Industry Checkpoint series focuses on IoT, highlighting how the market has changed in the last six months and its implications. The report considers four developments: IoT connectivity providers advancing commercial deployment of NTN services; IoT semiconductor vendors expanding device ecosystem support for NTN-IoT solutions, Qualcomm accelerating edge AI launches targeting industrial IoT; and eSIM SGP.32 momentum building across regional telco alliances and ecosystem initiatives.

This year’s IBC – one of the largest annual gatherings of the media and entertainment industry – showcased the latest technologies and highlighted key market developments. Among the takeaways from the show, AI was a defining theme, with a growing emphasis on large-scale deployment. However, it was changing content-consumption patterns that arguably carried greater, long-term strategic implications.

Apple held its Surprise and Shine event earlier this month, unveiling its latest range of devices. The standout was the much-anticipated foldable iPhone Duo, combining top-end specifications with what appeared to be a refined user experience. In this report, we dissect Apple’s new product developments and innovations from the event while assessing what they mean for the wider mobile industry.

GSMA Intelligence's Chart of the Month is a visual way of telling an important story in the mobile and broader tech ecosystem. From the shape and size of markets to trends in consumer behaviour, we aim to provide food for thought through informative visuals designed to bring colour and clarity to complex issues facing the industry. This edition looks at how much more enterprises are willing to pay for 6G over other network technologies.

This quarterly review of global 5G developments provides a concise, tracker-style deliverable, presenting key metrics and forecasts in an easy-to-access and engaging way. GSMA Intelligence has aggregated the latest data on 5G connections, adoption and coverage, as well as information on network trials/launches and spectrum assignments.

At IFA Berlin 2026, AI remained the dominant theme, as it becomes increasingly embedded across consumer electronics experiences. Beyond AI, robotics stood out, with the show hosting a ‘Robots on the Runway’ spectacle. For players across the consumer tech ecosystem, the themes highlighted at IFA continue to spur opportunities such as monetisation but also challenges, including costs and privacy issues.

By the end of 2025, the number of people using mobile internet increased to 4.8 billion people (59% of the global population). However, around 3.4 billion people still do not use mobile internet, and significant digital divides persist. As advancements in technologies such as AI accelerate the pace of digitalisation, it is more critical than ever to ensure no one is left behind. The State of Mobile Internet Connectivity 2026 provides the mobile industry and other stakeholders with a comprehensive overview of the trends in global connectivity, as well as insights on key barriers to mobile internet adoption and to further use of mobile internet among existing users.

Growth in AI consumption is creating commercial opportunities across the AI value chain. Over the past year, investment in AI has increasingly extended towards revenue-generating services and enterprise propositions, with operators assuming a broader range of roles across the AI value chain. Telcos in Asia Pacific are particularly active across multiple layers of the AI value chain. They account for 43% of those participating in the infrastructure layer and 38% in the model layer. This position reflects the combination of large and linguistically diverse markets, government-backed national and sovereign AI agendas, expanding AI infrastructure investment, and the scale of leading regional operators and technology ecosystems.

Digital trust has become a strategic delivery mechanism for building digital nations. Countries that build confidence in digital infrastructure, services and institutions will be better placed to convert digitalisation into adoption, innovation, investment and socioeconomic impact. To explain how digital trust can be strengthened, this report introduces four interconnected foundations of digital trust. Traditionally viewed as connectivity providers, mobile operators are increasingly contributing to all four trust foundations, making them key enablers of digital trust. 

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in digital services, the capabilities required to participate online are evolving. Beyond basic digital skills, people need the confidence, critical thinking and safety awareness to navigate AI-enabled systems, assess information and access opportunities. This latest research from GSMA Intelligence explores how digital literacy needs are changing in the AI era. It examines the approaches that can help build the skills required for meaningful participation in the digital economy.