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Ep 135 – Telco has a context problem (John Abraham)
Appledore Research's John Abraham joins DR to explain why context, not data, is the real blocker for AI at scale, and how ontologies give AI the business logic it needs to actually work.
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Ep 136 – MWC26 Wrap Up (Mobile World Live)
MWC26 is a wrap, and one thing is clear: the telco industry has moved past asking whether AI will transform the business. The question now 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 direct-to-device satellite announcements mean for operators, and why the way teams work in 12 months will look nothing like 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- I was wrong: OpenAI didn’t buy OpenClaw. The founder of OpenClaw joined OpenAI so the project could continue as an open-source initiative under OpenAI’s support.
- Learn more about the Totogi Ontology and how it’s helping Tier-1 operators turn AI into actual profit, and 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 of all of us wearing them!
- Check out this episode on our YouTube channel.
- You can find the episode transcript here.
Wanna talk AI and public cloud? Telco execs, set up a meeting with our team to learn how to tap the immense business value it can bring.
On the podcast
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
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The Telco in 20 podcast is ranked in the top 5% of all podcasts globally by Listen Notes! 🎉 We’ve also won 2024 and 2025 MarCom Awards, 2024 and 2025 Hermes Creative Awards, and are recognized as a TeckNexus Top 12 Telco and Tech Podcast, Forrester Top 100 Channel Podcast and Feedspot Top 10 Telecom Podcast.
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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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Frequently Asked Questions
1. What was the defining theme of MWC26?
Without question, agentic AI. DR called it before the show, and the word showed up in keynotes, on booth signage, and in every hallway conversation. But there was a gap between hype and action—most operators are still in exploration mode, talking about what agentic AI could do rather than deploying it. The takeaway: the technology is here now, and operators that keep watching instead of acting are falling behind. Watch DR’s Agentic AI Summit talk from MWC26.
2. Was 6G a big topic at MWC26?
Surprisingly, no. Despite expectations, 6G was notably absent as a dominant theme—likely to the frustration of Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei. The conversation at MWC26 was firmly anchored in what’s deployable today: agentic AI, direct-to-device satellite, and cloud-native software. Danielle Rios’ read is that competitive advantage is shifting away from network infrastructure and toward the software and data layer on top—which is where operators need to focus now.
3. What does DR say about the AI agent productivity opportunity for telcos?
DR puts it in concrete terms: one person running ten AI agents—working around the clock—can generate the equivalent of 20,000 hours of work over a two-week period. That’s based on a standard 2,000-hour US work year, multiplied across ten simultaneous pipelines. This is the new pace of work, and DR is direct: you can’t fight it. Operators that embrace agentic AI as a force multiplier will outpace those that don’t. Learn how the Totogi Ontology helps Tier-1 operators turn AI into actual profit.
4. How is the telecom stack shifting, and what does that mean for competitive advantage?
DR’s big-picture observation from MWC26: the telecom stack is rapidly moving up the software layer. Hyperscalers are positioning their clouds as the operating system for AI-driven network operations, and satellite networks are becoming infrastructure that telcos can source instead of build. When physical infrastructure becomes easier to outsource, competitive advantage shifts to how well operators run the business on to—BSS, data, and customer logic become either a moat or a vulnerability.
5. What is the Totogi Ontology, and why does it matter for AI in telecom?
Telecom AI fails when it lacks the right context—and that’s exactly the problem the Totogi Ontology is designed to solve. It gives AI models a telecom-specific knowledge foundation, enabling Tier-1 operators to move from AI experimentation to actual business results. Appledore Research has published a report on its impact: Telecom-specific Ontology, the key to AI-native telco (paywalled), which validates the approach for operators evaluating AI-native transformation.
6. What topics did this special “double drop” episode with Mobile World Live cover?
This episode was released simultaneously on Telco in 20 and the Mobile World Live podcast. DR joined host Justin Springham, managing news editor Kavit Majithia, and analyst Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies to break down MWC26’s biggest themes: agentic AI hype vs. reality, the satellite land grab, the OpenClaw/OpenAI story, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite Platform.