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.

Africa’s coastlines are becoming gateways to a digital future. A wave of new subsea cables is reshaping connectivity across the continent - but experts warn that keeping them running, and ensuring their benefits reach inland, remains the real test.

Last week, Hurricane Melissa devastated Jamaica and swept through other islands in the Caribbean including Cuba, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake. Melissa was a Category 5 storm, the most intense to make Atlantic landfall for 90 years according to Agence France Press.

AI RAN (Radio Access Network) is attracting major investment from telecom providers as they seek to improve efficiencies to reduce their expenditure, with Juniper Research recently predicting that operators would plough $21 billion into AI technologies this year.

In a recent feature, I explored how operators are reducing their capex by turning to alternatives for RAN, including Infrastructure as a Service and Virtual RAN.

Deploying a mobile network has never been cheap, but the scale of the intensive capital expenditure required is increasingly pushing smaller players to seek out alternative models for delivering connectivity.

Hurricane season in the Caribbean usually runs from June to November, but the storm arrived a month early at Digicel’s Jamaica headquarters in 2024, when Marcelo Cataldo (pictured) took the top job to turn around a company struggling under billions of dollars of debt.

Next month marks Safaricom’s 25th anniversary. CEO Peter Ndegwa (pictured) was in London to reflect on the operator’s journey - from a subsidiary of Telkom Kenya to becoming the country’s largest and most valuable enterprise.

As the limitations of generative AI become clearer, agentic AI has emerged as the next trend within the sector – to the extent that the term has been widely adopted, poorly defined, and consequently often misunderstood amidst all the hype.

China Mobile (CM) was recently hailed for becoming a high-level autonomous network in only six years. The operator’s efforts were not wasteful and have showcased results that all operators, not just emerging market players, should strive for.

Globally, smartphone sales have been declining for the past few years, with emerging markets one of the few growth drivers. However, the cost of smartphones is a major barrier to adoption in these regions, and this has resulted in thriving grey markets for devices that are resold outside of official channels.

Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs) are playing an increasingly vital role in spreading connectivity across emerging markets. While they typically operate in smaller-scale environments than Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), MVNOs are often hotbeds of innovation - especially in areas like fintech and mobile-first services that are only now catching on in parts of Western Europe.

Cellular operators cannot hope to match the coverage that satellite delivers, but this advantage has long made the technology prohibitively expensive for providing widespread connectivity.

Telenor’s planned exit from Pakistan is currently being held up by the country’s competition authority – a delay the Nordic group argues is stagnating digital development in the South Asian nation.

As mobile networks expand and data demands explode, sustainability is becoming more than a buzzword, it’s a mandate. Telecom operators around the globe are under increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprints, comply with climate regulations, and cut energy costs. But there’s a problem: many still don’t have a clear picture of what’s actually consuming power across their infrastructure.

Super Apps are gaining traction globally, and while the core concept remains consistent, their implementation and reception vary significantly across diverse regions – although ease of financial management typically underpins the offering. Operators are increasingly evolving their owns solutions into Super App platforms that combine traditional telecom services with financial services, customer support features, and retail layers.

At Digital Transformation World in Copenhagen this year, there were many cheerleaders for AI - and chief among them was Anton Bonifacio (pictured), who holds the unique dual role of Chief AI Officer and Chief Information Security Officer at Globe Telecom.

Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing a paradox in its financial transformation. Mobile network coverage now extends to 84% of the population, yet only 25% are actively connected, leaving a 59% usage gap.

At a recent roundtable discussion, Veon’s Lasha Tabidze described how the group is positioning itself as a service delivery company with LLMs at the core of its AI strategy.

The telecoms sector is admirable in its pursuit of sustainability – but this is at least in part motivated by the sheer cost of constantly replacing network equipment and devices as they slide into obsolescence. While manufacturers are increasingly focused on extending the lifespan of equipment, this does not negate the issue of recycling outdated gear.

Connectivity in Africa has been a hot topic for decades, often framed as a bastion of opportunity due to the continent’s immense population still awaiting digital access.

Telefonica has been active in Latin America for decades – but in late 2019, it announced plans to withdraw from many of the markets in this region, divesting or spinning off its operations in a process that is ongoing. From a business standpoint, this made sense – aside from its Brazilian unit, Telefonica’s Latin American operations accounted for just a fifth of its operating profits.

India’s mobile landscape prior to 2022 was murky in the context of 5G. Operators, regulators, and stakeholders were embroiled in disputes over inadequate infrastructure and high spectrum pricing - leaving the country’s burgeoning population of over one billion trailing behind as other nations began rolling out 5G services.

The GSMA recently released its State of the Industry Mobile Money Report, looking at how the sector has grown in the past year. Mobile money has of course been one of the major success stories for the industry in emerging markets, and we’ve certainly found in the past that reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.