In early March, much of the global tech community will travel to Barcelona to attend the 2025 Mobile World Congress (MWC), an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry. Over 100,000 attendees from across 2,700 global organizations are expected at this year’s event.

Counterpoint Research will have a large analyst delegation at the event to meet key players across the mobile ecosystem and analyze the latest industry trends. The team will also meet telecom operators, vendors and the media. Click here to schedule a meeting with us.

We expect GenAI, unsurprisingly, to dominate many of the discussions as the entire industry is expecting the technology to reinvigorate the mobile communications sector . Counterpoint Research will also be watching for developments in other areas such as IoT, semiconductors, smart devices, smart transportation, and 5G connectivity and beyond.

Counterpoint Research expects the following trends at this year’s show:

Telco: The 1^st Generation of B2C & B2B Solutions Materializes – GenAI will unsurprisingly dominate the messaging from telcos this year and many of the leading Tier 1 carriers will be highlighting how they are using the technology to optimize operations in terms of customer service, internal workflows and network management. We also expect to see more revenue generating services such as AI digital assistants, e-commerce offerings and B2B applications from the likes of SKT, NTT Docomo, Vodafone, Telefonica and Rakuten Mobile as well as from vendors such as Huawei and Amdocs.

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Smartphones: On-device GenAI Takes Off – Although MWC 2025 may see fewer device launches, major Android OEMs are expected to maintain a significant presence with AI as a central theme. We expect the global debut of the Xiaomi 15 series along with wearables. TECNO has also announced its AI product launch, indicating multiple devices across form factors. HONOR’s Alpha plan hints at highlighting its strategy by showcasing its latest AI products. We expect Samsung to showcase its Galaxy AI positioning and AI-related uses cases for the S25 series at the event. TCL, Nothing, and HMD are also expected to launch new devices. The industry is shifting focus from traditional hardware advancements, such as bigger screens, faster processors, and more cameras, to offering more intelligent, adaptive, and personalized user experiences. Hyper-personalization, which started with premium smartphones, will eventually extend to all devices as GenAI technology matures. OEMs are likely to prioritize simplifying GenAI for everyday users and we expect many discussions on the topic at MWC 2025.

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AI Language Models: Bigger and Better but Also Smaller – How LLMs have advanced will be a hot topic this year as semiconductor and software makers will be showcasing agentic AI solutions. These solutions, in theory, make AI solutions more autonomous. Small language models get less attention in the media but there should be several announcements regarding them, particularly with respect to on-device AI applications. We expect updates from NVIDIA, Qualcomm and AMD.

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Wi-Fi: The 7^th Generation Gains Momentum – As Wi-Fi 6 matures there will be lots of new products released with Wi-Fi 7 enabled. This will make the technology more versatile in not only smartphones, wearables and PCs but in a variety of IoT devices, which will expand the degree to which companies can leverage it. Some companies will likely start touching upon Wi-Fi 8. Qualcomm, ZTE, MediaTek, and Rohde & Schwarz are some of the companies to follow in this space.

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IoT: More Opportunities with 5G RedCap – We expect more 5G RedCap devices to be announced at the show, which will likely be priced cheaper. This is particularly important for telcos as they will be increasingly able to offer more connected solutions using their own network which would otherwise use connectivity via technologies like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. We will be watching for announcements from companies like Sequans, Semtech and AT&T.

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Open RAN: Progress but Networks are Still Mostly Closed – There will be several announcements at the show and there will be progress announced in terms of the number of deployments, but overall adoption remains limited. OREX and Viettel are two key companies to watch in this space.

6G: Standardization Efforts Advance – There will be more buzz surrounding 6G this year compared to last year, although telcos are currently keener on leveraging AI solutions than deploying a new generation of network technology. What spectrum should and could be used will be the focus of this discussion largely from test and measurement vendors. NTT, KDDI, Nokia and Ericsson will likely have interesting updates on their R&D and standardization efforts.

Satellite Communications: Deeper Terrestrial and Non-terrestrial Integration – This was a big focus last year as telcos were starting to create alliances with LEO/MEO/GEO constellation operators. There will be more discussion on this topic this year particularly as telcos are starting to share terrestrial spectrum with other telcos to provide better coverage. Starlink should be providing updates on its telco partnerships as well as incumbent constellation operators like SES. Telcos such as Vodafone may also have relevant announcements.

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Quantum Computing: Becoming More Than Just a Concept – This really has not been much of a focus yet, but as quantum computers are starting to become more available, we expect to hear more about what companies are doing in the space in areas like cryptography and new solutions. Telefonica will be holding a session on some of its early moves in the space.

Robotics: Lots of Smoke but is there Fire? – Robotics are always featured prominently at MWC events to much fanfare. MWC 2025 will be no exception. While hardware will continue to advance, we expect to see little in terms of a connectivity opportunity for telcos. We will be watching for announcements from companies such as Boston Dynamics, FANUC and John Deere.

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