The curtain has closed on another Mobile World Congress Barcelona, where more than 100,000 people wandered through eight cavernous halls, collectively racking up enough steps to climb a small mountain - or at least justify an extra tapas or two after a long day.
During MWC26 Barcelona Developing Telecoms’ Director of Content James Barton sat down with Majda Lahlou Kassi, Vice President and Head of Ericsson West and Southern Africa, to discuss Ericsson’s current strategy and focus areas in Africa and the potential impact AI may have on telecom networks and services across the region in the future.
Agentic MBB will enable operators to unlock end-to-end network value by building service-oriented, system-level intelligence.
The World Broadband Association’s Director General, Martin Creaner, talks to Developing Telecoms ahead of the association’s Broadband Development Congress, held this year during Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona. The discussion focuses on the WBBA’s role in the industry’s future development, and the cooperation willingness with other SDOs (e.g. ITU-T ION-2030), as well as on two newly-launched WBBA publications – a white paper on All-Optical Target Networks and a refreshed edition of the WBBA’s Gigacity Index.
Telkom Indonesia’s data center arm NeutraDC announced on Thursday it has signed an MoU with F5 to explore strategic cooperation in the development of managed AI connectivity solutions in Indonesia.
ZTE revealed on Thursday it has signed an MoU with Bangladesh telco Grameenphone to collaborate on deploying large language model (LLM) and agentic AI technologies to build autonomous networks.
As AI workloads reshape enterprise infrastructure, data centre networks are under increasing pressure to deliver higher performance, resilience and automation.
Huawei Optical Business Product Line, unveiled a range of new next generation optical networking products and solutions during MWC26 Barcelona.
At MWC Barcelona 2026, Huawei unveiled its upgraded Xinghe Intelligent WAN Solution. This solution provides a stable network foundation via upgraded intelligent identification, secure encryption, reliable convergence, and intelligent O&M to address digital transformation challenges facing the ISP, government, electric power, and transportation industries.
At this year's Mobile World Congress (MWC 2026), Huawei unveiled and demonstrated its single-wavelength 2T ultra-high-speed metro solution in the optical transmission domain. Covering both terrestrial and submarine cable scenarios, this solution reduces per-bit network construction costs to enable global operators to deliver ultra-broadband, highly reliable, and agile communication services.
Ubiquitous mobile broadband coverage mandated by the universal service obligation is boosting digital inclusion around the world and accelerating progress towards the UN’s sustainable development goals for 2030.
State-owned service provider Libya Telecom & Technology (LTT)and technology giant ZTE Corporation have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) establishing a strategic partnership between the two parties.
ZTE Corporation, a global leading provider of integrated information and communication technology solutions, announced the debut of its groundbreaking Linkpro plus Wi-Fi 8 home networking solution at MWC Barcelona 2026.
Cambodian telco Smart Axiata says it has signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Amazon's Prime Video to deliver richer digital lifestyle experiences for its 5G customers.
UPDATE: Ethio Telecom says it lined up several vendor deals to modernise its telecoms network at last week’s Mobile World Congress, with agreements with Ericsson and ZTE already signed and others with Huawei and Nokia in the pipeline.
Service provider Econet Wireless Zimbabwe and tech giant Ericsson and have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to design, test and deploy next-generation mobile services in Zimbabwe powered by artificial intelligence (AI), 5G-advanced and enhanced network security.
Turkcell made moves at Mobile World Congress 2026 this week to beef up its planned 5G network, deploy AI in its mobile core and get started on 6G via separate deals with Ericsson and Mavenir.
Viettel High Tech, the technology arm of Vietnam’s Viettel Group, announced on Thursday it has signed 6G collaboration deals with Intel, AMD, ID Quantique and Qualcomm at Mobile World Congress 2026 as it plots out a roadmap to commercialise its own 6G gear by 2029.
Malaysian 5G wholesale operator U Mobile says it signed several MoUs at Mobile World Congress 2026 this week – two with Huawei, one with ZTE and another with Palo Alto Networks – related to 5G-Advanced, AI and security-as-a-service (SECaaS).
Telekom Indonesia’s telecoms infrastructure subsidiary Mitratel announced on Wednesday that it has renewed and extended its collaboration agreement with Airbus subsidiary AALTO to provide high altitude platform station (HAPS) connectivity in Indonesia.
Beeline Uzbekistan, Veon’s digital operator in Uzbekistan, and Rakuten Symphony, a subsidiary of Rakuten Group, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) at MWC26.
Cassava Technologies, a global technology leader of African heritage, has announced the launch of its Cassava Cloud Partner (CCP) programme during MWC26.
Sovereign AI company MeetKai and the Smart Africa Alliance announced this week during MWC26 what they call a landmark collaboration to launch a five-country pilot advancing sovereign AI across Africa.
Pan-African (and formerly Middle Eastern) operator MTN is finally leaving Syria and, it seems, a replacement is already being lined up.
nubia unveiled its nubia Neo 5 series at MWC Barcelona 2026, led by nubia Neo 5 GT - the only device in its class featuring a built-in fan and a completely flat design, alongside the more accessible nubia Neo 5 and nubia Neo 5 Max boasting a 7.5-inch large display.
The GSMA Handset Affordability Coalition signed an MoU with the Africa Group of Six (G6) operators on Tuesday to introduce US$40 entry-level 4G smartphones in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda this year.
During MWC 2026, a leading European consulting company, IDATE, held the Green All-optical Network Forum 2026. During the forum, IDATE presented four major awards to 17 world’s leading operators.
NEXCOM, a provider of mission-critical network platforms, and Hytec Inter, Japan's 5G wireless communication expert, have announced at MWC26 a joint rail communications solution designed to support mission-critical rail operations using a unified hybrid 5G architecture.
AI-focused company SK Telecom has signed a three-party memorandum of understanding (MoU) with global server manufacturer Supermicro and global mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) leader Schneider Electric to develop a total solution for artificial intelligence data centres (AIDC).
The intelligent era is developing rapidly, and digital boundaries are constantly expanding. We are at a historical moment where network security and intelligent technologies are converging, presenting unprecedented opportunities and challenges.
Global digital operator Veon has announced a partnership with the GSMA’s Mobile for Development Foundation to co-fund digital innovation projects in Pakistan and Bangladesh that are supported by the GSMA Innovation Fund.
During the 4th Intelligent Operations Forum at Mobile World Congress (MWC 2026), Huawei officially launched AUTINOps, the industry’s first AI-Native intelligent operations solution.
India-heaquartered company Tejas Networks, which designs and manufactures high-performance wireline and wireless networking products, has announced the launch of TJ1600-D3, its next-generation, versatile WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) optical transport product.
Ericsson announced at Mobile World Congress 2026 on Wednesday it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vietnamese operator Viettel to collaborate on autonomous network development.
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