MWC 2026, Tuesday 3 March

It’s day two of MWC 2026 in Barcelona, and the CCS Insight team continues to bring you the latest news and trends from this global event. In this blog, we highlight today’s big stories, spanning satellite, sovereignty, radio access network (RAN), AI, cloud and devices.

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Motorola Showcases New Razr Fold

Motorola used MWC to showcase several products it had previously unveiled at CES, including its latest flagship device, the Motorola Razr Fold. This premium foldable is a mere 9.9 millimetres when closed and 4.6 millimetres when open, features a 6,000 mAh battery and has an advanced camera system. Motorola joins a long list of companies offering phones with this design, and there’s a palpable feeling that manufacturers are betting on market growth in 2026, given the widespread rumours that Apple will launch a folding iPhone in 2026. The company also announced the Motorola Edge 70 Fusion and a suite of FIFA-branded products connected to parent Lenovo’s sponsorship of the forthcoming World Cup.

These phones align well with Motorola’s strategy of having a growing proportion of its range in a “premium” portfolio. At MWC, Motorola stated that its Razr and Edge products now account for 40% of its sales revenue. This is timely given its long-time success with low- and mid-range devices, which are being affected by the global memory shortage.

The focus on design also remains a core pillar for Motorola, using a wide range of colours and materials. The company also continues to partner with colour-matching experts Pantone.

Deutsche Telekom Unveils MINDR, New Multiagent Intelligence Tool

Announced at Deutsche Telekom’s traditional Monday afternoon press conference, MINDR uses AI to detect, diagnose and resolve network issues before they affect the customer experience. The announcement reflects an emphasis from operators on service reliability and continuity at MWC this year.

In partnership with Google Cloud, MINDR builds on the pair’s launch of the RAN Guardian agent at last year’s show, which has already identified 240,000 events that could potentially affect the network. The new network automation tool, which is an acronym for multi-agentic intelligent network diagnostics and remediation, applies the same principles across the entire network, including not just the RAN but also the transport and core domains. At the press conference, Abdu Mudesir, Deutsche Telekom board member for product and technology, said that agents collect and correlate network data, build a real-time, end-to-end view of service performance, and support root-cause analysis and controlled remediation.

New Sub-6 GHz Products from Huawei Arrive

Huawei has made over 25 announcements so far at this year’s MWC, reflecting the breadth of the company’s portfolio and the scale of its industry reach and customer relationships.

In RAN, Huawei unveiled a range of new products aimed at existing sub-6 GHz spectrum bands. For outdoors, the 256 TRX AAU has a large antenna array design and digital-analogue hybrid intelligent beamforming. Huawei states that its high-resolution multiuser-MIMO algorithm and total bandwidth of up to 400 MHz across all bands allows it to reach 100 Gbps in downlink and more than 10 Gbps in uplink. There are a range of options to meet different operator spectrum assignments and deployment scenarios.

Huawei also has new, small-cell products for indoors with bandwidth of up to 400 MHz and a simplified design. Completing the portfolio, it’s introducing new microwave products for backhaul with full duplex to improve site capacity and support greater 5G and, in time, 6G spectrum usage.

These products don’t target the majority of potential new Frequency Range 3 bands, but Huawei positions them as having an easy upgrade path to 6G — although it gave few details on the practicalities. For operators in mature markets, deploying new RAN equipment must now have a low-cost upgrade to 6G, because 6G will arrive during the expected lifetime of the deployment.

Qualcomm Announces X105 5G Modem with Agentic AI

As has become the norm at MWC, Qualcomm announced its latest flagship integrated modem and RF solution. The X105 represents Qualcomm’s fifth generation of 5G modem, optimized for the agentic AI era where quality of connectivity is of central importance. The AI features include the ability to sense and predict RF conditions to maximize connection quality. APIs allow manufacturers to use the predictive intelligence capability for improving user experiences.

The modem features 30% lower power consumption and a 15% smaller design than the previous generation. Integrated NR-NTN (5G over satellite) and a next-generation RF front-end, including a new envelope tracker and power amplifiers, further increase modem efficiency. Although the heavy, AI-focused positioning may feel like “AI rinsing”, Qualcomm is building on years of expertise in advanced modem design with predictive capabilities. The new solution maintains the company’s leadership status in modem design at a critical juncture in the development of agentic AI and the path to 6G.

Amazon Leo to Provide Vodafone with Mobile Backhaul by Satellite

Building on a strategic collaboration announced in September 2023, the deal sees Amazon Leo connecting remote 4G and 5G mobile stations to the core network through satellite backhaul in Europe and Africa. This will enable Vodafone to expand its terrestrial network in areas that would be impractical or unaffordable to connect to using fibre cables or fixed wireless links, bridging the digital divide. The satellites provide cell site backhaul of up to 1 Gbps download and 400 Mbps upload. Vodafone could also provide a service in remote areas with relatively large populations where new satellite direct-to-device technologies can’t deliver good service quality because of capacity constraints. This will be particularly beneficial in Vodacom markets where millions remain without mobile connectivity.

The first mobile site connected by Amazon Leo’s service is set to launch later in 2026, the timing and location dependent on its satellite constellation roll-out. As of 4Q25, Amazon Leo had 152 low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites, but in the first two months of 2026 it has expanded its constellation to over 200 satellites and is expected to continue to launch aggressively. By mid-2026, the company expects to have over 700 orbiting satellites, overtaking OneWeb to become the second-largest LEO constellation.

The agreement between the two companies further diversifies Vodafone Group’s satellite strategy. The company already has partnerships with AST SpaceMobile for direct-to-device and Iridium for satellite internet of things, and Vodacom in Africa is partnering with Starlink to roll out satellite broadband.

SpaceX Outlines Plans for Starlink’s V2 Direct-to-Device Constellation

On Monday, SpaceX executives highlighted the transformative potential of satellite-to-smartphone connectivity for mobile operators and their subscribers. They emphasized that Starlink is already the largest 4G coverage provider globally and pointed to real-world deployments, including its 3 million subscribers on Kyivstar’s service in Ukraine, as well as enabling critical communications during the Los Angeles wildfires and recent earthquakes in Japan.

However, the main announcement centred on the next generation of Starlink’s direct-to-device satellites. The upcoming V2 constellation should deliver significant performance improvements for existing and prospective mobile operator partners, including recently announced Deutsche Telekom.

The planned 1,200-strong constellation will be launched using SpaceX’s upcoming Starship vehicle. The company says it’ll deliver 100 times greater data density, with 5G speeds of up to 150 Mbps. Importantly, the system is positioned as complementary to terrestrial wireless networks, compliant with the 3GPP’s NR-NTN standard and supporting newly acquired, globally licensed mobile-satellite service spectrum. SpaceX indicated a mid-2027 target for readiness of the V2 constellation — an ambitious timeline.

Starlink remains the current market leader in direct-to-device satellite connectivity, with several commercial services. However, competition is intensifying. AST SpaceMobile, which announced several significant partnerships with Satellite Connect Europe at MWC, aims to launch its mobile broadband satellite services in the second half of 2026. For both companies, deployments hinge on the development of launch vehicles and scheduling. The Starship rocket is a limiting factor as it remains in the test phase. We’ll explore this further in our round-up of all the satellite news at MWC, available to clients on CCS Insight Connect.

Amazon Commits €33.7 Billion to Expand Data Centre Infrastructure in Spain

Amazon announced plans to invest up to €33.7 billion in Spain over the next decade to expand its data centre infrastructure and strengthen the regional presence of Amazon Web Services (AWS). The investment will increase cloud capacity to support growing demand for digital services and AI workloads throughout Europe, while reinforcing Spain’s role as a strategic hub for cloud infrastructure. Amazon positioned the expansion as part of its long-term commitment to European innovation, economic growth and secure cloud services.

This announcement reflects the broader shift in which sovereign cloud has developed from an abstract policy discussion into a practical procurement requirement. As we outlined in our recent blog AWS European Sovereign Cloud Launch: What Matters, European buyers are increasingly concerned not only with where data is located, but with how cloud environments are governed, including operational control, metadata handling and auditability. Expanding regional infrastructure strengthens AWS’s ability to support those expectations, particularly for regulated and public-sector workloads, yet investment scale alone doesn’t establish sovereignty credibility. Ultimately, what matters is the presence of enforceable control-plane mechanisms, transparent operating models and the ability to provide audit-ready evidence that aligns with Europe’s tightening digital governance standards.

SK telecom Showcases AI for “Infinite Possibilities”

As at last year’s event, SK telecom’s MWC stand was almost entirely devoted to opportunities from AI. The South Korean operator, which has endured a difficult recent period following a high-profile data breach, continues to position itself as an AI company rather than a traditional telecom operator, and plans to be at the forefront of its country’s push to become a top-three global leader in AI.

Its demonstrations include: AI Data Centre Infrastructure Manager, a platform enabling real-time monitoring of the vast data generated from AI datacentres; A. note, a voice recording and documentation service; agentic AI services and supporting platforms designed to enhance customer experience; and its Robot Training Platform, which connects virtual environments with real-world sites to help physical AI learn the sensory capabilities it needs. At the show, CEO Jung Jaihun described the event as a “golden time” for transformation as the company expands from its foundations in telecom toward leadership in AI.

Palo Alto Networks and Partners Launch “Secure by Design” AI Factories

Palo Alto Networks announced an initiative promising “secure-by-design AI factories” in collaboration with a group of global technology partners. The initiative is intended to help organizations build and operate AI infrastructure with embedded security controls from the outset, rather than applying protections after deployment. It focuses on securing AI workloads across the full life cycle, including data pipelines, model training environments, inference systems and AI-driven applications, as enterprises move from experimentation to production-scale AI deployments.

The significance of this announcement lies in the reality that enterprise AI momentum is now constrained less by ambition and more by readiness. Our Survey: Senior Leadership IT Investment, 2025 revealed that organizations are broadly committed to scaling AI, but progress is slowed by structural gaps in governance, integration maturity and operational control. As AI systems move deeper into core workflows, the risk profile shifts from isolated experimentation to enterprise-wide exposure, spanning data integrity, model behaviour, third-party dependencies and regulatory accountability. Security architecture is emerging as the gatekeeper of AI scale: organizations that can’t demonstrate control, traceability, policy enforcement and jurisdictional clarity at the operating layer will struggle to move beyond pilots into enterprise-wide deployment.

Google at MWC 2026: Agentic Telco Ambition Meets Execution Reality

Google used MWC 2026 to push a clear thesis: telecommunications are moving from AI-led insights to “agentic” operations in which intelligent agents can sense, reason and act across network workflows. The core building blocks it highlighted were an evolving network digital twin (a temporal graph), a unified graph data layer spanning operational and analytical data, and predictive “healing” using graph neural networks trained in Vertex AI.

It also anchored the story on two commercial uses. Firstly, growing revenue through the Camara Number Verification 2.0 API is aligned with GSMA Open Gateway. Secondly, and importantly, Google framed a “proactive loyalty engine” as an agentic contact-centre model built with Amdocs, where Gemini supports the customer conversation, and Amdocs’ Cognitive Core (within its agentic operating system) supplies the telco-specific logic to diagnose issues and trigger actions across systems. The aim is to shift from reactive support to proactive resolution, ideally fixing service and billing problems, including credits, before customers complain.

The direction is consistent with what enterprise buyers say they want, but the market is unforgiving of execution. In a recent CCS Insight study on opportunities for communications service providers, we discovered that enterprises still make decisions based on familiar measures: reliability, integration fit, provable delivery and clear end-to-end accountability. The strongest barrier to expanding scope isn’t lack of interest in transformation, but persistent operational friction, especially around commercial operations such as billing accuracy, dispute resolution and credits. Although ecosystems are now normal, buyers remain wary of blurred ownership over multiple partners. This is where Google’s positioning is both compelling and exposed. The digital twin and graph-led operations narrative should help operators shift from reactive troubleshooting to earlier detection and faster resolution, and the Amdocs-led “loyalty engine” points in the right direction by bringing the last mile of service and billing execution into scope. But to convert ambition into adoption, Google and service providers will need to package autonomy with auditability. This means providing explicit ownership models, clear guardrails for agent actions, and evidence that outcomes improve in real, mixed-vendor estates, not just in curated demos.

If you’d like to discuss any of the stories we touch on here, please get in touch. And if you’re attending MWC: come and see us! Click here to book a meeting.