MWC 26 is a wrap, and one thing is clear: the telco industry has moved past asking whether AI will transform the business. The new question is who's moving fast enough to capture value, and who's still playing catch up.

Before I left Barcelona, I stopped by the Mobile World Live Podcast to debrief with host Justin Springham, Managing News Editor Kavit Majithia, and analyst Carolina Milanesi from Creative Strategies. We broke down the real story behind the agentic AI buzz at MWC, what the direct-to-device satellite announcements mean for operators, and why the way teams work in 12 months will look nothing like it does today.

Listen now to hear:

The word of the week at MWC26—and why most of the industry is still missing it [04:43]
The satellite land grab every telco exec should be paying attention to [10:10];
How agentic AI is already changing the way people work and live [14:15]; and
Why the best engineers aren't writing code anymore—they're commanding fleets of agents [17:26]

Links and Resources:

Watch my MWC26 talk for the Agentic AI Summit, Show me the money.
Check out Mobile World Live’s version of this episode!
I also appeared in Mobile World Live’s MWC26 Preview episode last month. GIve it a listen to see if my predictions were right.
The panel covered the biggest news coming out of MWC26. Read more about these stories:
- SpaceX announced the mid-2027 launch of Starlink Mobile, its direct-to-device satellite network.
- The founder of OpenClaw joined OpenAI so the project could continue as an open-source initiative under OpenAI's support.
- Vodafone and AST SpaceMobile announced a joint venture, later joined by Orange and Telefónica, to expand satellite-to-mobile connectivity.
- Vodafone CEO Margherita Della Valle warned of a "wild west in the skies" in her MWC26 keynote, and urged the industry to establish ground rules for satellites.
- Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon Wear Elite Platform, which aims to transform everyday wearables into personal AI devices.
- FCC Chair Brendan Carr was at MWC26—catch Kavit's interview with him on the Mobile World Live website.
Learn more about the Totogi Ontology and how it's helping Tier-1 operators turn AI into actual profit.
Read Appledore Research’s report on Totogi: Telecom-specific Ontology, the key to AI-native telco (paywalled).
Did you miss my padel tournament that kicked off MWC26? Watch the highlights here—and mark your calendar for next year!
I handed out Totogi scarves to the Mobile World Live team—arguably the best swag at MWC26. Check out this photo.
Check out this episode on our YouTube channel.
You can find the episode transcript here.

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This week’s guest:

This episode is a special double-drop with the Mobile World Live podcast, featuring:

Justin Springham, Publisher, Mobile World Live
Kavit Majithia, Managing News Editor, Mobile World Live
Carolina Milanesi, President and Principal Analyst, Creative Strategies
And yours truly, Danielle Rios, Founder and CEO of TelcoDR and Totogi

Podcast Credits:

Executive Producer and Host: Danielle Rios, TelcoDR
Senior Producer: Lindsay Grubb, TillCo Media
Senior Editor/Brand Manager: Alisa Jenkins, Springboard Marketing
Audio Editor: Andrew Condell
Supervising Producer: Amanda Avery
Associate Producer: Kriselda Dionisio
Music: Dyami Wilson

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