More than 105,000 visitors from 207 countries attended MWC Barcelona 2026, held from March 2 to5, the world’s most influential event for the mobile industry. This year’s edition brought together 2,900 exhibitors, sponsors, and partners, along with more than 1,700 speakers and industry thought leaders, once again positioning the event as the leading convergence point for operators, technology providers, and developers worldwide.

Despite a complex international environment—marked by the conflict in the Middle East and several flight cancellations in the days leading up to the event—activity throughout the conference remained intense.

For Plusmo, MWC 2026 provided an opportunity to strengthen relationships with suppliers and other players in the mobile ecosystem, while continuing to build partnerships and generate new business opportunities.

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Security at the center of the debate

One of the most visible themes of this year’s edition was security within the mobile ecosystem. “There was a strong focus on network security, communications security, and everything related to fraud prevention,” explained Pierre-Elie Zipilivan, CEO of Plusmo Protect.

Within this context, network API–based solutions gained prominence, reflecting the growing maturity of the market. “This year, we saw more use cases presented, particularly around identity verification APIs and data matching. It’s clear that the ecosystem is very active and that there is strong optimismabout business development in this space”, Zipilivan noted.

Open Gateway and the expansionof APIs

MWC 2026 also highlighted the consolidation of the Open Gateway initiative, led by the GSMA, which aims to standardize and expose network capabilities to developers and enterprises through APIs.

This framework seeks to transform mobile networks into programmable platforms, enabling sectors such as finance, logistics, manufacturing, and transportation to integrate network functionalities directly into their applications.

According to announcements during the event, the ecosystem continues to expand, with a growing number of operators opening their APIs and more technology companies beginning to develop services on top of these capabilities.

During the conference, the GSMA also hosted the Open Gateway Summit, focused on accelerating the adoption of these APIs across industries and promoting new use cases.

KYC: One of the applications with the strongest momentum

At this stage of market development, one of the use cases generating the greatest interest among companies is related to KYC (Know Your Customer) processes and digital onboarding, which are now strategic for customer acquisition.

Mobile identity API enables real-time validation of user information using data provided by mobile network operators, significantly improving registration and verification processes.

This is particularly relevant for organizations offering financial services or credit products. “For companies that provide credit or operate with installment models or ‘buy now, pay later’ services, having more information about customers enables better scoring and helps reduce default risk”, Zipilivan said.

While fraud prevention remains a critical issue, in many cases, the initial adoption of mobile identity APIs is primarily driven by customer acquisition needs.

Artificial Intelligence and automation

Artificial intelligence was also present in multiple announcements and demonstrations during the congress. Agentic AI emerged as a technology with the potential to transform how network APIs are discovered and used.

This approach could automate interactions with network services, simplify implementation, and lower barriers for developers—enabling a new generation of applications built on programmable mobile infrastructure.

Privacy and data protection

As network APIs increasingly rely on sensitive user data, privacy protection is becoming a critical factor for operators and for the broader ecosystem.

“For operators, it is essential that data privacy policies are respected and that there is clear control over how customer information is distributed”, Zipilivan explained.

In this context, Plusmo’s technology architecture includes region-specific cloud infrastructures, designed to ensure that data remains within the appropriate regulatory frameworks.

“The goal is to ensure that an operator’s data does not need to travel to othercountries for processing. That is essential to comply with privacy policies,” Zipilivan concluded.