In Case You Missed It: daily MWC highlights and updates

Monday’s highlights at MWC26 Barcelona 

Welcome to day one of this year’s event 

Spotted at keynote one 

There was serious star power present for the opening keynote of MWC26 Barcelona, with King Felipe VI of Spain, President of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and President of the Government of Catalunya, Salvador Illa, all in attendance.  

Opening MWC, Vivek Badrinath, Director General of the GSMA, outlined three ‘mountains’ the industry must climb together: completing the 5G journey, rising to the AI challenge – including a new Open Telco AI initiative and the launch of an Open Swahili Reasoning Model to tackle the growing AI language gap – and protecting the world from the escalating global scam epidemic.  

Ambitious? Absolutely. But as Vivek put it, “the journey that lies ahead won’t be easy. The challenges are massive, but the opportunities are exciting”. 

Quote of the day 

“We are entering a new era where seamless interoperability meets legitimate requirements of sovereignty, resilience and protection. If we are to remain the nervous system of the digital world, we must evolve and act as bridges between countries, industries and people.”  

Vivek Badrinath, Director General, GSMA 

Connectivity “from the seabed all the way up to the stars” 

Joining the stellar lineup of speakers in keynote one was “real life” (in the words of his interviewer, Margherita Della Valle) astronaut, Tim Peake. Briefly touching on loneliness in space – and connectivity’s role in enabling contact with his family during his six months in orbit on the International Space Station – the two called for collaboration in the “Wild West” of space, and “a new coordinated set of rules that can be applied to our use of the sky.” 

This address came on the same day as GSMA Foundry and the European Space Agency (ESA) announced new funding worth up to €100 million for projects to accelerate the convergence of space and mobile industries. 

If you didn’t catch it today, ESA will offer live satellite demonstrations at the ESA and Foundry NTN Showcase tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11:00 and 14:00, where you can see how Europe will explore the moon in the coming decade. 

Exhibition highlight 

Airport of the Future – now boarding

The Airport of the Future (AotF) at MWC26 is what happens when aviation and cutting-edge connectivity finally sit next to each other in first class – and it's a very comfortable ride. 

Imagine a living, breathing real-world testbed for the frictionless, hyper-connected airports of tomorrow – and MWC attendees can walk right through it today. 

AotF's showstopper is a live, full-scale Motional Digital Twin of the entire exhibition zone, powered by Outsight's Spatial AI technology, the first time this has ever been deployed at a tech event. Using 3D LiDAR sensing, it anonymously tracks the movement of every person in real time, offering a live window into how airports around the world are already managing passenger flows, queue dynamics and terminal operations.  

But there's more to explore – tag your luggage digitally and sort your pet's travel passport at check-in with Aena. Step aboard Airbus' connected aircraft experience and customise your own cabin environment. And catch Neutral Wireless demonstrating low-latency live video from a 5G-connected aircraft.  

MWC announcements

• Amazon’s Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer, David Zapolsky announced that AWS is vastly expanding its infrastructure investment in Spain to a total of $33 billion, up $18 billion from the figure announced a few years ago. As David put it, the investment reflects Amazon’s “long-term commitment to Spain, to make Spain the AI epicentre for our operations in Europe.”
• The tech giant also announced it will be opening seven new solar facilities in Spain, as well as an advanced manufacturing plant in Aragon, forming the centre of Amazon’s European server and server rack manufacturing.
• Vodafone's new open access company, Satellite Connect Europe, in partnership with AST SpaceMobile, will allow European operators to access satellite operations based in Europe. Vodafone announced today that operators including Orange and Telefónica, representing 10 European markets, have chosen to work with Satellite Connect Europe, following its launch last week