The world is more connected than ever. Some six billion people were online in 2025, according to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). Yet 2.2 billion remained offline, mostly in low- and middle-income countries. Even that figure understates the challenge: the GSMA estimates that more than three billion people live within mobile-broadband coverage but do not use mobile internet.

The $2 billion investment by the Spanish company Submer Group to establish a semiconductor facility and a 1 GW AI-ready data centre campus in Madhya Pradesh in central India marks a significant shift in the country’s digital landscape.

As a topic, AI sovereignty has gained exponential traction in the last six months as enterprises have begun bringing AI use cases into operation – and enterprises worldwide, particularly in developing markets, will be keen to ensure that their long-term strategies are compliant with the various regulatory frameworks that are emerging worldwide.

For more than a decade, the telecoms industry has championed digital inclusion, invested billions in network expansion and driven smartphone adoption across emerging markets. Yet 810 million women in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) remain offline.

A recent investigation by Global Witness has highlighted how conflict minerals sourced in the Democratic Republic of Congo continue to find their way into the supply chains of companies such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Vodafone.

Given that Digital Transformation World tends to focus more on the software side, it will be of minimal surprise that AI dominated the majority of the presentations and discussions at the show.

Day One of Digital Transformation World 2026 kicked off with a focus on speed – the runaway pace of AI evolution, the breakneck pace at which enterprises must work together to adapt, and the scramble to take advantage of opportunities as they evolve.

Regulators, famously, move slowly – while AI models are evolving at an unfathomable speed, outpacing the speed of governance whether intentionally or not. The potential benefits of AI-driven autonomous networks are vast, but so is the possibility for disaster if AI agents are able to act without accountability.

As telecom operators scramble to define their place in the artificial intelligence (AI) value chain, one question continues to hang over the industry: what happens when the hyperscalers arrive?

During 2025, Balancing Act, a consultancy and research practice focused, among other areas, on telecommunications in Africa, carried out independent research into sub-Saharan Africa’s data centre and cloud market to produce the fifth edition of its African Interconnection Report.

The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz caused by the US and Israel’s war with Iran is placing fresh pressure on emerging market telecom operators, many of which remain heavily reliant on diesel generators to keep their networks running.

In the 5G era, cybersecurity vigilance is standard, but many operators and businesses have still struggled to withstand the constant barrage of attacks. In the past year, even colossi such as CloudFlare have fallen victim, and now that AI enables cyber threats to mutate beyond established legacy defences with alarming speed, companies worldwide are struggling to keep up.

For many in the telecoms industry, the promise of cellular IoT has always been global scale.

As AI firms look to handle their ever-escalating compute loads, they are snapping up the global supply of consumer graphics processing units well before more can be produced – causing prices to surge worldwide for any product that contains a semiconductor.

Last week, we examined how Orange Group is building ecosystems across its MEA footprint through its Digital Centres initiative – but these training spaces are not the only pillar of Orange’s strategy in the region.

In low-income markets – such as much of Africa – customer loyalty can rest precariously on affordability, so establishing trust is essential for operators if they wish to retain their community.

Is the regulatory environment for satellite communications keeping up with advances in technology, especially with the growth of low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite services?

At this year’s MWC, much of the industry conversation centred on AI, automation and the next wave of network innovation. But for Nokia, the reality facing many operators - particularly in emerging markets - is more complex.

At Mobile World Congress 2026, a familiar narrative around satellite connectivity took on a sharper edge. While low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations promise to connect the hardest-to-reach communities, mobile operators in emerging markets are increasingly warning that the regulatory environment has not kept pace – and, in some cases, risks tilting the playing field.

Orange Group Middle East and Africa CEO Yasser Shaker said he is aiming to triple the number of users of the Max It super app to 75 million as part of a broader strategy to sustain growth across the operator’s African footprint.

The curtain has closed on another Mobile World Congress Barcelona, where more than 100,000 people wandered through eight cavernous halls, collectively racking up enough steps to climb a small mountain - or at least justify an extra tapas or two after a long day.

It’s the biggest event in the industry’s calendar, so of course Developing Telecoms is back on the ground in Barcelona next week for Mobile World Congress 2026 Barcelona. But what will be under discussion?

Operators across the world have spent the past several years seemingly unloading their passive infrastructure - towers, fibre optic networks, and other backbone assets - in what looked like a series of fire sales. But now, some are exercising contract clauses to bring these assets back in-house.

The global data centre map tells a blunt and uncomfortable story. Compute power is concentrated in the Global North, while Africa sits at the edge of a digital world it increasingly depends on. This imbalance is not technical - it is structural, economic and strategic, and it quietly shapes who holds authority in the AI era.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) has awarded a feasibility study grant to support SubConnex’s proposed SCNX3 subsea cable system, linking India and Singapore. 

Artificial intelligence has become the most ubiquitous term in an industry obsessed with buzzwords, with the astronomical levels of hype matched only by the investment being poured into the technology.

When major cloud and internet platforms suffer outages, the disruption often appears global. Websites go dark, applications stall and social media fills with complaints. But beneath the surface, the impact is far from evenly distributed. In developing and emerging markets, the same technical failure can ripple more deeply - exposing structural weaknesses in how the global internet is built, routed and governed.

The year ahead undoubtedly holds challenges for the telecoms industry, but progress on a number of fronts appears assured.

History will judge whether 2025 proves to have been pivotal for the telecoms industry or perhaps heralding a false dawn. The technologies and tools necessary for service providers to transition from connectivity providers to digital services companies continued to be rolled out over the year, yet network investments have struggled to recover from recent lean years and monetising 5G connectivity remains a challenge.

In Part 2 of Developing Telecoms’ Global Forecast 2026, we share insight from vendors, including ZTE and Ericsson MFS, as well as the network & enterprise divisions of major operator groups, including Airtel Business and Liberty Networks.

The telecoms sector is always looking to the future – but as 2025 draws to a close, thought leaders across the industry are of course considering what 2026 will have in store. For our Global Forecast 2026, Developing Telecoms reached out to luminaries from service providers, manufacturers, AI specialists and operator groups to hear their thoughts. Over the next two weeks, we’ll share their responses.

Smartphones are now so ingrained in our lifestyles that we see them as our gateway to connectivity. In developed markets, society is increasingly structured on the reasonably accurate premise that everyone has access to a 4G device, but in emerging markets, it becomes apparent that smartphones are more of a luxury.

Children across Africa are coming online faster than anywhere else in the world - but with this rapid connectivity surge comes heightened exposure to cyberbullying, harmful content, misinformation, and exploitation.