MWC26 Doha opened in Qatar on Sunday 8 November, bringing operators, policymakers and technology leaders together for three days of debate about the future of connectivity across the Middle East and North Africa. The event, organised by the GSMA in partnership with Qatar's Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, is being held under the theme "The IQ Era" at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre.

The opening ceremony took place in the presence of Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman bin Hassan bin Ali Al Thani, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs. Mohammed bin Ali Al Mannai, Qatar's Minister of Communications and Information Technology, delivered the welcome address and toured the accompanying exhibition, including the Qatar Pavilion, where national projects using advanced technologies and artificial intelligence were on display.

In his opening remarks, Mr Al Mannai said the second edition of MWC Doha comes at a time when telecoms infrastructure is undergoing fundamental change. He said that as artificial intelligence advances towards executing tasks through intelligent agents, the need for more resilient networks and advanced computing capabilities continues to grow, while global challenges underline the importance of diversifying connectivity routes and ensuring service continuity.

GSMA Director General Vivek Badrinath and International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin opened the programme with a fireside chat on the future of connectivity in the region, the importance of global standards in keeping networks interoperable, and efforts to expand internet adoption and narrow the digital divide. Mr Badrinath said progress only counts if everyone shares in it, pointing to global standards that keep networks, services and devices working across borders and a concerted effort to connect the people who are still offline.

The event is notable for a first: the GSMA and the ITU have come together in Qatar, co-locating MWC26 Doha with the opening of the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, known as PP-26. The conference, hosted by Qatar's Communications Regulatory Authority on behalf of the State of Qatar from 9 to 27 November, is the ITU's principal governing body. Held every four years, it sets the UN agency for digital technologies' strategic and financial plans, elects its leadership and determines its overall direction.

Two new GSMA reports were launched to coincide with the opening. The Mobile Economy MENA 2026 report found that mobile technologies and services generated 380 billion dollars of economic value across the region in 2025, equivalent to 5.8 percent of regional GDP, and forecast that figure would reach 470 billion dollars by 2030. The mobile ecosystem supported 2.2 million jobs and contributed 40 billion dollars to public finances in 2025.

The report also charts the region's uneven progress. Fifth-generation connections are set to rise from 9 percent of the region's total in 2025 to 40 percent by 2030, with operators forecast to invest 88.9 billion dollars over the same period. Yet only 48 percent of the region's population used mobile internet in 2025, while 49 percent remained offline despite living within coverage, underlining the scale of the usage gap the industry is trying to close.

A second report, 5G Monetisation MENA, examines how operators are converting network investment into sustainable revenue as the industry's focus shifts from rollout to making money from 5G. It found that 17 of the region's 24 markets had launched commercial 5G services by September 2026, with connections forecast to rise from 67 million in 2025 to almost 350 million by 2030. Operators are expected to invest a further 53 billion dollars between 2026 and 2030 to expand coverage and deploy standalone 5G networks, while fixed wireless access is emerging as the clearest route to new consumer revenue, already available on around 64 percent of the region's commercial 5G networks.

MWC26 Doha continues through 10 November, with livestreamed keynote sessions, specialised discussions, an accompanying exhibition and further announcements on telecoms, artificial intelligence and digital transformation expected over the coming days.