SIGNALS FLASH! FACTS NOT FOTOS
SIGNALS FLASH! FACTS NOT FOTOS
Key Takeaways Following MWC 2026
03/11/2026 | 13 pages
Last week Signals Research Group (SRG) attended Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2026 in Barcelona, Spain. We’ve been to every single MWC in Barcelona since it first started being held there in 2005, although we’ll take two mulligans for Covid. We earlier posted comments about MWC on LinkedIn, based entirely on AI-generated garbage (we will neither accept nor reject any of those comments since they weren’t ours.) We will, however, affirm the following highlights and observations, which we discuss in more detail.
Key Highlights and Observations
Native-like AI RAN before 6G. A native AI air interface was touted as being one of the key differentiators of 6G, but the industry couldn’t keep AI on the sidelines for that long. Although the precursor contributions of AI may not live up to the expectations of 6G, they will still be meaningful, potentially resulting in only incremental gains in performance once 6G takes the stage.
How Open Can You Go? The flurry of MWC announcements included one on OCUDU (Open Centralized Unit/Distributed Unit). There were already enough open alliances and consortiums to choke a horse. Is there really a need for another one?
GPU Can Wait. Much like Warren Beatty’s character in the 1978 film, the timing of GPU dependency is in the eyes of the beholder. For some, the “need” is immediate and perhaps due to other financial considerations. For others, using the GPU for RAN processing is a longer-term scenario. Leveraging excess GPU processing for other AI-centric applications is technically feasible, but economically uncertain.
Damn the 6G Merits, Full Steam Ahead! The operators simply wanted more spectrum and they were instead presented with 3G. 4G LTE owes its timeline to the competitive juices of WiMAX. 5G has the 2018 Winter Olympics to thank. There is an established track record here and 6G won’t be any different (for better or, more likely, worse).
It’s an ISAC Life. Although ISAC seems like a solution looking for a problem, there seems to be general interest from operators when it comes to ISAC, although we do have questions.
A Non-exhaustive List of Potential SA Topics. We always leverage MWC as a means of determining future topics for our Signals Ahead benchmark studies. The list we offer may not be exhaustive, but it will be exhaustive for us.