What will everyone be talking about at MWC2026?

Mobile World Congress 2026 lands in Barcelona with operators, vendors and regulators converging around a familiar set of tensions: how to pay for ever-heavier networks, how to turn 5G into real revenue, and how far to go with automation and AI.

Debate will likely centre on monetising 5G-Advanced through enterprise and private networks, using AI to automate operations and cut costs, and deciding what role open RAN and cloud-native cores will realistically play at scale. Expect continued concern over spectrum policy and energy use, plus early positioning around 6G, mostly in the form of trials, roadmaps and marketing rather than near-term deployments. Underneath it all is a simple question: who funds the next round of infrastructure, and who actually earns a return on it.