Mobility has moved far beyond connecting people, things, and devices. Today, it underpins entire economies. It powers how industries operate, how cities function, and how intelligence is delivered at the edge. The mobile network is no longer just an access layer—it is the central fabric of the digital economy.
Every intelligent interaction, from AI at the edge to real-time industrial automation, depends on resilient, secure, and programmable mobile infrastructure.
At Mobile World Congress, we’re demonstrating how Cisco is helping customers transform mobility infrastructure into strategic business platforms—unlocking new revenue streams, supporting AI workloads, and materially reducing operational complexity.
Moving from components to platforms
Our mobility investments reflect a deliberate long-term strategy: delivering end-to-end networks as cloud-native platforms. Rather than making incremental upgrades, we are consolidating the full mobility stack into programmable, service-based architectures.
Recent milestones include Cisco Mobility Services Platform, which delivers mobility as a service with strict data sovereignty and security controls. The platform also includes the following innovations:
- IoT as a service: Simplifying global IoT operations at scale
- Cisco Programmable Core: Enabling global-scale networks without traditional operational overhead
- Cisco Mobility Services Gateway: Empowering controlled migration from 2G through 5G Advanced toward AI-native, 6G-ready architectures
Each advancement addresses what customers consistently need: predictable performance, lower operational burden, and a clear path to monetization.
“Our collaboration with Cisco reflects a long-standing relationship focused on driving meaningful IoT innovation and creating measurable outcomes for our customers,” said Shawn Hakl, SVP, Business Product at AT&T. “By combining AT&T’s nationwide 5G Standalone network with Cisco’s industry-leading Mobility Services Platform, we enable enterprises to securely scale business-grade IoT solutions with the performance, reliability, and simplicity required for next-generation industrial connectivity.”
“Our collaboration with Cisco enables us to create differentiated IoT services and transform how our customers manage and scale their global IoT deployments,” said Onur Kasaba, Managing Director of Tele2 IoT. “By leveraging the Mobility Services Platform, we can build innovative connectivity services that reduce deployment times from months to minutes. Our partnership with Cisco gives us the robust, scalable foundation we need to deliver seamless and profitable IoT solutions to our customers worldwide.”
Designing innovation for profitable growth
Every platform we build serves two priorities: generating new revenue or materially reducing cost—often both simultaneously. Cisco Mobility Services Platform allows operators to run full-stack, global-scale networks without traditional overhead, while retaining programmability to launch services rapidly. This kind of programmability, global reach, and operational simplicity are no longer differentiators—they are competitive requirements.
Preparing mobile networks for the AI era
In addition to collaborating with leading telecommunications providers, Cisco is also partnering with NVIDIA to prepare mobile networks for AI-driven growth. The Cisco AI for Wireless and Wireless for AI strategy delivers two important capabilities:
- AI for Wireless embeds intelligence directly into as-a-service platforms, transforming operations, improving insights, and continuously optimizing performance.
- Wireless for AI helps make sure mobile infrastructure supports distributed AI workloads with predictable performance, low latency, and reliability.
As AI increasingly executes at the edge, networks must become adaptive intelligence fabrics, not static transport layers. Our collaboration with NVIDIA works to make sure that networks are architected to support edge AI workloads today while remaining adaptable as requirements evolve, without constant re-architecture.
Accelerating monetization through ecosystems
We continue expanding our ecosystem strategy, evolving APIs, applications, and end-to-end use cases to help operators move beyond connectivity into broader value chains. In today’s market, ecosystems are key to accelerating monetization at scale.
As part of our open innovation commitment, Cisco is joining the Linux Foundation as a founding member of Open Centralized Unit Distributed Unit (OCUDU) to drive the creation of interoperable, cloud-native core frameworks. We will contribute reference architectures and technical expertise to advance automation, programmability, and ecosystem collaboration across mobile networks.
Streamlining the 5G Advanced transition
Customer feedback is clear: While 5G Advanced promises new capabilities, transitions must be economically viable and operationally manageable. Cisco powers more than a billion users globally through our packet gateway infrastructure. Yet we recognize that legacy complexity often slows standalone and advanced 5G adoption.
The Cisco Mobility Services Gateway addresses this directly. It enables evolution from LTE to 5G Advanced in a controlled, economically sound manner while preparing for AI-native 6G. Compatible back to 2G, fully containerized, and engineered for extreme performance and power efficiency, it allows operators to migrate at a pace aligned with business priorities—not through disruptive, all-or-nothing transitions.
Embracing simplicity as a strategic advantage
A unifying theme across our portfolio is simplicity. Over successive generations, feature density and divergent requirements have created fragile, complex technology stacks that slow innovation and increase cost. Cisco has taken a structured approach to reversing this trend through end-to-end stack control, platform consolidation, and service-based delivery. The result: reduced lifecycle complexity, faster service innovation, lower operating cost, and greater ecosystem participation—directly accelerating monetization.
Earning trust at global scale
Cisco operates the world’s largest global IoT platform, supporting 293 million mobile IoT subscribers, including 130 million connected vehicles. Our platform spans top-tier service providers and 31,000+ enterprises worldwide, processing approximately 2 petabytes of data daily and 123 million API calls.
Industry validation reinforces this leadership:
- Counterpoint 2026 Connectivity Management Platform Rankings: Pacesetter (second consecutive year)
- Frost & Sullivan 2025: Leader in IoT Connectivity Management Platform
- Fierce Networks 2025 Awards: Finalist, Wireless Innovation Core (Programmable Core)
These recognitions reflect sustained execution at global scale, and the trust of our customers and partners worldwide.
Building the future together
This is not incremental progress. It is about building the infrastructure entire economies now depend on. As mobility becomes foundational to AI-driven growth, Cisco stands ready as a trusted partner—empowering intelligent connectivity at global scale. Connect with us at Mobile World Congress to explore how Cisco Mobility can accelerate your AI-driven transformation.
Additional resources
Connect with Cisco at Mobile World Congress 2026:
- Follow the conversation at #MWC26