{"id":11186,"date":"2026-04-24T17:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/11186\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T17:26:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:26:19","slug":"mwc26-innovation-tech-sovereignty-and-industrial-competitiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/11186\/","title":{"rendered":"MWC26: Innovation, Tech Sovereignty and Industrial Competitiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At Mobile World Congress 2026<\/a> (MWC26) innovation, technological sovereignty, and industrial competitiveness were central themes in both the industry exhibitions and the policy discussions.<\/p>\n

A successful new edition of MWC in Barcelona <\/p>\n

The MWC26, celebrated 20 years in Barcelona, drawing 105,000 participants from over 200 countries, around 4,000 fewer than last year, reflecting the impact of geopolitical tensions leading up to the event. Under the theme the IQ era, the event featured 1,700 speakers and more than 2,900 exhibitors, and 188 delegations at the GSMA Ministerial Programme, making it a key meeting place. 4YFN<\/a>, the innovation fair, hosted over 1,000 startup exhibitors, with hundreds of investors with collective funds totalling $70 billion.<\/p>\n

Separately, Talent Arena<\/a>, the second edition of the event dedicated to the developer community, organised by MWCapital and co-located at Fira Montju\u00efc, welcomed over 25,000 attendees, a 25% more than last year.<\/p>\n

As anticipated following the previous edition of MWC<\/a>, artificial intelligence was deeply embedded across the event and began taking physical form, while sovereignty, defence, cybersecurity, and the need for scale and regulatory adaptation were at the centre of discussions. Geopolitics played an increasingly important role, with telecom operators emerging as key tech providers. The urgency for Europe to act quickly to improve its competitiveness and strengthen tech sovereignty was a major focus.<\/p>\n

Investing in technology and technological sovereignty: the need for scale and smart regulation<\/p>\n

Let us gain scale as part of a social contract and we will invest in technology<\/p>\n

Marc Murtra, Executive Chairman of Telef\u00f3nica, took part in a GSMA panel on technological sovereignty<\/a>, urging the European Union to foster greater scale in the telecom sector to reinforce European strategic and technological independence.<\/p>\n

In the same vein, during the same panel<\/a>, Deutsche Telekom\u2019s CEO Tim H\u00f6ttges strongly criticised the proposed regulations on the Digital Networks Act (DNA) and CSA2, expressing frustration about Europe falling behind in the global technology landscape.<\/p>\n

In the Ministerial Programme, the \u201cEurope\u2019s DNA Test<\/a>\u201d session featured Renate Nikolay, Deputy Director-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology at the European Commission who presented the Digital Networks Act as a new deal for connectivity, promoting a single market, predictability, and modernisation in response to changing times.<\/p>\n

Joakim Reiter of Vodafone and Juan Montero of Telef\u00f3nica challenged the proposal, arguing it will require substantial overhaul to truly modernise the framework, incentivise investment and innovation, and achieve real simplification. Michael Kobosko, European MEP, stated that, in his view, the proposal provides little meaningful simplification and stressed that achieving high-quality legislation will demand extensive work and consensus-driven compromises.<\/p>\n

Beyond the policy debate, one of the most significant announcements on European sovereign infrastructure was the EURO-3C project<\/a>, presented by the European Commission (Renate Nikolay) \u00a0and a consortium of more than 70 members led by Telef\u00f3nica, bringing them together, at Telef\u00f3nica\u2019s stand<\/a>. The \u20ac75 million initiative, financed under the European Union\u2019s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme, aims to integrate telco, edge, cloud, and AI infrastructure into a federated European system, designed to strengthen Europe\u2019s digital sovereignty and industrial capabilities.<\/p>\n

Innovation and technology: Ready for Next <\/p>\n

Under the motto Ready for Next, Telef\u00f3nica welcomed its visitors to the stand<\/a> spanning a wide range of cutting-edge technologies, highlighted in our newsletter<\/a>, including three live permanent demos:<\/p>\n

Critical Mission Dome<\/a>: managing resilient connectivity through on-site private 5G networks, satellite, and command and control, enabling drone control, robots, and more.Titan Connect:<\/a> advanced public-network and digital services for always-on operations, enhanced by AI and network slicing, that can generate real societal impact.Quantum Telco<\/a>: a selection of quantum technologies applied in real business scenarios: quantum-safe communications, quantum key distribution, applied quantum computing, and next-gen cryptographic infrastructure. <\/p>\n

At 4YFN, Wayra celebrated 15 years in Barcelona<\/a> as a hub connecting start-ups with Telef\u00f3nica\u2019s business and financial investors, showcasing a total of 26 start-ups.<\/p>\n

The Agora, central stage of Telef\u00f3nica\u2019s stand <\/p>\n

The Agora<\/a> once again took the stage with over 25 talks, demos, and roundtables from high-profile speakers. A wide range of topics was covered, including Artificial Intelligence, network evolution, edge cloud, quantum technologies, defence and cybersecurity services, drones, identity, digital transformation, sovereign stack, start-up innovation, sustainability, policy and more.<\/p>\n

Among other announcements, like the previously mentioned Euro-3C, Telef\u00f3nica launched Europe\u2019s first 5G Cyber Defense Center<\/a>, a Center for Development, Training and Testing for Military Operations in Cyber Defense with 5G Technology, in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Defence and within the NATO Digital Foundry initiative. Advances were showcased during the Agora session \u201c5G Operations Experimentation: Defence and Innovation in the Era of Dual-Use Technologies<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Telef\u00f3nica also unveiled the \u2018SOC of the Future<\/a>,\u2019 designed to enhance companies\u2019 cyber resilience using AI. Additionally, the company highlighted Virgin Media O2\u2019s mobile transformation in the UK<\/a>, featuring satellite connectivity integration, as well as Telef\u00f3nica Germany\u2019s showcase of network monetisation in the AI era<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MWC26 showed<\/a> that the telecom sector is no longer just about connectivity: it is becoming a strategic platform for AI innovation, technological sovereignty, and Europe\u2019s industrial competitiveness.<\/p>\n

For a recap, watch the video summary of MWC26<\/a> at Telef\u00f3nica\u2019s stand, and revisit all activities outlined in our brochure<\/a>, including our Agora roundtables<\/a>, now available on demand.<\/p>\n

See you at the next MWC in Barcelona!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At Mobile World Congress 2026 (MWC26) innovation, technological sovereignty, and industrial competitiveness were central themes in both the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[439,562,579,521,155],"class_list":{"0":"post-11186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-telefonica","8":"tag-cybersecurity","9":"tag-eu-2024-2029","10":"tag-mwc","11":"tag-public-policy","12":"tag-telefonica"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}