Telecommunications operators defend their crucial role in digital transformation and to reshape future connectivity as the Mobile World Congress opens in Barcelona, the industry’s premier mobile event kicking off this Monday.
On one front, about fifty global telecoms have joined the Open Gateway technology alliance to standardize a global framework that turns networks into large platforms for selling digital services. On the other, operators push for regulatory changes that encourage responsible use of networks by major tech firms, which have shouldered billions in investment themselves. Yet the stance is softening: the sector seeks greater cross-industry collaboration and a rationalization of traffic concentration rather than a pure pay-for-use argument against tech giants.
“This is the moment for global collaboration and fair governance to deliver a sustainable, mutually beneficial value chain. It is time to collaborate, not engage in abusive positioning,” said Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete, chairman of Telefónica and current head of GSMA, during the MWC opening. He also highlighted Barcelona as the best venue for the world’s leading telecoms fair.
In recent years, the EU debate about a potential regulatory shift to require giants such as Alphabet, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, or Netflix to pay for network use has intensified, given their heavy reliance on telecom infrastructures as a core business element (these digital behemoths account for nearly half of global traffic).
With no EU steps yet to enforce a fair share from tech firms, Telefónica tempered its demands, proposing a review of how large techs utilize networks to pursue more efficient use that could reduce traffic. “Now is the time for a global alliance and fair governance to achieve a sustainable, beneficial value chain. It is time for responsible use of shared resources and a new regulatory landscape. We need 21st-century regulations,” Alvarez-Pallete stated. “It is time to move away from old regulatory models.”
The Telefónica president called for strong collaboration among telecoms, large tech firms, aggregators, software developers, and all industry players to shape a shared digital future, aiming to blend the best of telecommunications networks with the best of cloud computing under joint leadership. “We need each other,” he remarked, echoing a call for global partnership and fair governance to ensure a sustainable, mutually beneficial value chain.
Colaborar para una nueva era
At last year’s MWC, GSMA announced the Open Gateway project, an alliance of telecom companies worldwide to standardize the use of fiber networks for digital services, enabling a single API standard for developers to leverage across networks.
“We are becoming active co-creators of the new digital era. We deserve a more balanced ecosystem. Collaboration embodies the power of what can be achieved when all pull together,” stated Telefónica’s president. “That is what GSMA and Open Gateway are delivering.”
One year into the global Open Gateway initiative, which began with a handful of telecoms, the network now includes 47 operators and 239 networks, handling two-thirds of all mobile connections worldwide with about 5.7 billion lines. Six countries now host commercial APIs within Open Gateway, including Spain through Telefónica, Orange, and Vodafone. “The future is here and unfolding, with new products and services already flowing through our networks.”
The alliance aims to redefine the telecoms role in the digital ecosystem: networks should not merely transport voice and data or be paid for that function. They should gain new layers of capability through digitization, offering tailor-made services to businesses and creating new revenue streams for operators. Networks therefore become a kind of “supercomputers” for developing multiple digital business lines.
To reach this, telecoms pave the way for other tech groups to help build these services. Operators unite to open and standardize the digital applications that developers use, ensuring one type of app can work across all operators, accelerating and simplifying API development.
“Telecommunications capabilities go far beyond mere communications. In the coming months and years, several generations of APIs will be made available to developers and businesses for new functionalities. We are just at the start of a new era,” highlighted Alvarez-Pallete. The Earth Computing initiative has demonstrated its capacity as a facilitator of this new world. It now falls to each participant to engage and accelerate Open Gateway’s availability to inaugurate this exciting future and unlock a new market for the sector.”
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