Inside MWC Shanghai: Mobile AI Comes of Age

Inside MWC Shanghai: Mobile AI Comes of Age

The Path to 6G this week leads to China as, fresh from speaking at MWC Shanghai, Steve shares his thoughts with MJ about robots and embodied AI, the token economy, 6G experimentation and innovation, and sore feet! The GSMA’s Shanghai event continues to grow in popularity to showcase the bleeding edge innovation coming out of China, but what did it reveal about the future of advanced networks? Steve and MJ discuss how AI monetization emerged as a central theme at the event, with the token economy reframing how operators deliver network value, improve compute efficiency, and build new economics for AI at scale. They also look at how China’s networks are rapidly shifting beyond connectivity to support mobile AI and new commercial models.  And of course, 6G momentum is accelerating, so where is China prioritizing innovation? Plus, with embodied AI and robotics moving from showcase concepts to practical use cases, what do these developments reveal about a future world where networks and robotics help power entirely new forms of digital and physical interaction.  All this and more on The Path to 6G.

Identity, Time, and Trust in 6G

There are plenty of flashy headlines about what 6G will bring, but for this episode The Path to 6G team consider some of the potentially overlooked capabilities that could quietly shape what 6G becomes. MJ and Steve explore why identity may need to move beyond the SIM as networks connect not just people and phones, but also robots, sensors, software workloads, vehicles, and even autonomous AI agents making decisions on the network. They contemplate network time as a service and why ultra-precise synchronization could become a critical capability for future industries, as well as throwing resilience into the mix and considering whether future networks should be designed to degrade gracefully when things go wrong. It’s time to consider the “invisible user experience of 6G”, and the idea that some of the most powerful and sticky network experiences may be among the ones that users barely notice.

The Business of Stadium Connectivity: Monetizing 5G at Mega Sporting Events

As a spectacular summer of World Cup soccer approaches, The Path to 6G team take a look at some of the network technology that will share the world’s biggest sporting tournament with fans across the globe. With 16 host stadiums across Canada, Mexico and the USA, the tournament is unprecedented in its scale and will serve as the ultimate proving ground for modern connectivity, driven by private 5G networks and network slicing. This will be key to unlocking new in-person fan experiences for those in the stadiums, while empowering broadcasters to rely on untethered wireless cameras to deliver flawless, high-quality live broadcasting to billions of fans watching worldwide. And all without competing for bandwidth. Steve and MJ are joined again by service assurance expert Ross Cassan, to dive into how this technological leap is becoming the pivotal catalyst for operators to monetize their 5G and future 6G investments.

To the Cloud – and Beyond!

The Path to 6G takes MJ and Steve to the cloud this time round to consider how if 6G is evolving into a cloud and AI native distributed computing fabric, what must we do to create value now while safely building the foundations for tomorrow's monetization?  It's not just about faster radios or more bandwidth. It's about networks becoming intelligent, programmable platforms that can sense, compute, automate, and assure services across devices, edge, cloud, space, industry ecosystems, and a whole lot more. To help MJ and Steve navigate this topic, they're joined by Spirent telecom cloud expert Bill Clark. Together, they explore how the pioneering cloud-native infrastructure test and benchmarking solutions of today are helping service providers accelerate the rollout of their 5G standalone and advanced networks, and also laying the foundations for a rapidly approaching 6G.

The New Telecom Frontier: NTN, AI & Space-Based Networks

MJ and Steve are joined by Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNT) expert Jeremy Bennington to explore how non-terrestrial networks (NTN) are shaping the path to 6G, focusing on direct-to-device (D2D) satellite communications and PNT. They discuss how LEO satellites are enabling coverage expansion, resilience, and new telecom services, while highlighting challenges like spectrum interference, device limitations, and service continuity. The trio delve deeper into space to talk about the rising threat of GNSS spoofing and jamming that's driving demand for resilient PNT, signal authentication, and AI-driven detection. With LEO-based PNT emerging as a complementary solution, NTN is set to become a foundational layer for global connectivity, security, and next-generation telecom innovation. #telecoms #space #GNSS #LEO