Event Focus: 5G Satellite at MWC
As satellite shifts from experimental deployments toward commercial scale, the Satellite and NTN Summit returns for a second year at Mobile World Congress Barcelona on 4 March. It’s set to be the biggest session yet and aims to capture a pivotal moment for the industry.
Running from 10:00 to 13:00 on the GSMA Summits Stage in Hall 6, the session will convene operators, satellite providers, and infrastructure leaders to examine how non-terrestrial networks are evolving from supplemental coverage into a strategic extension of mobile connectivity.
With a month to go until the event, momentum in telco-satellite convergence is moving decisively beyond pilot programs, with several services already launched and a larger wave expected between 2025 and the following two to three years. For mobile operators long focused on terrestrial buildouts, satellite is increasingly viewed less as a competitive alternative and more as a pragmatic solution to persistent coverage and economics challenges.
The market potential alone underscores the urgency of the discussion, with GSMA Intelligence estimating 500–600 million people remain outside traditional network coverage, roughly 300 million more sit at its margins, and billions of IoT devices are creating new demand for resilient, wide-area connectivity.
Against this backdrop, the summit will explore the strategic priorities shaping the next phase of integration between satellite and 4G/5G networks including revenue models, go-to-market strategies, service performance expectations, and the regulatory and spectrum decisions likely to influence competition over the next three to five years.
The competitive landscape itself is becoming increasingly dynamic. Alongside early traction from SpaceX’s Starlink, major initiatives from AST SpaceMobile, Eutelsat and its OneWeb, Amazon’s Project LEO (formerly Kuiper), and the partnership between Apple and Globalstar point toward a market entering a more mature, and contested, phase.
However, technology progress is only part of the story. Advances at the chipset and device level are rapidly expanding the addressable base for satellite-enabled services, particularly as direct-to-device capabilities move closer to mainstream adoption. For operators, this raises new questions about pricing, customer experience, and whether seamless roaming across terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks can become a realistic differentiator.
Emergency communications and disaster response are also expected to feature prominently in the conversation, reflecting growing recognition that satellite resilience can strengthen national connectivity strategies as climate-related disruptions and large-scale outages become more frequent.
The session will be led by GSMA Intelligence Head of Research & Consulting Tim Hatt, with keynote remarks from MDA Space CEO Mike Greenley. Panel perspectives will include leadership from AST SpaceMobile and SES, offering viewpoints from both emerging and established satellite operators as the ecosystem accelerates toward commercial reality.
For attendees, the most valuable signals may come less from long-term vision and more from near-term execution: where operators are committing capital, how partnerships are forming, and which services are approaching viable scale.
The question is no longer whether satellite will integrate with mobile networks, but how quickly that integration reshapes the boundaries of global connectivity.
Register to attend at https://www.mwcbarcelona.com/agenda/sessions/6135-satellite-and-ntn-summit