Key Insights from the SNS JU Session at MWC25

On March 3, 2025, the European Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) hosted a high-level session at Mobile World Congress 2025 (MWC25). Moderated by the SNS JU Executive Director Erzsébet Fitori, the session brought together European industry leaders for strategic discussions on the future of digital infrastructure and connectivity. Additionally, more than 30 SNS JU-funded projects presented their cutting-edge research and technological advancements, highlighting Europe’s commitment to innovation and next-generation connectivity.

This year, the SNS JU had the honor of organising one of MWC25’s opening sessions titled “Digital Infrastructure of the Future: Shaping Europe’s Competitive Edge”. With over 700 participants registered to attend the session, the event underscored the growing interest in Europe’s vision for the future of connectivity.

The session featured two panel discussions with representatives from Nokia, Ericsson, Orange, Airbus, Scaleway, 5G Automotive Association and the Port of Barcelona. The discussions explored the transformative potential of 5G, 6G, and the evolution toward a seamlessly connected computing continuum, while also addressing critical challenges to reinforcing Europe’s leadership in the global digital landscape.

Keynote Insights: Strengthening Europe’s Connectivity Ambitions

To set the stage, the SNS JU had the privilege of welcoming two high-level keynote speakers, who emphasised the importance of advancing next-generation connectivity in Europe and the crucial role played by the Joint Undertaking.

Renate Nikolay, Deputy Director-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology at the European Commission, highlighted the need for a regulatory framework fit for today’s world with industrial policy responses for enhanced technology sovereignty and European Single Market. Connectivity is the backbone of our digital economy, and it enables digital innovation. With AI set to become the game changer, the emergence of 6G should enhance the capability of data infrastructures and foster cloud, computing and data convergence.

Renate Nikolay highlighted the SNS JU’s essential role in uniting key stakeholders to develop 6G technologies and standards:

“The Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking, the reason why we are here today, it’s at the moment the instrument that we have to bring together the key connectivity stakeholders to develop together the 6G technology standards and testbeds and to address the telco cloud computing convergence.”

Colin Willcock, Chairman of the 6G Industry Association, reinforced this message, emphasizing Europe’s responsibility in driving global standardization efforts while ensuring they align with European values and priorities. He also highlighted telecoms as a key area where Europe is in the lead, with the SNS JU playing a pivotal role in turning this vision into reality. With €1.8 billion earmarked for next-generation network development and 6G research, the SNS JU has already invested over €500 million in 80 projects, involving 505 unique entities across 33 countries.

Charting the Future of Connectivity through Converged Technologies

With ambitious objectives ahead, industry leaders, regulators, researchers, and policymakers must collaborate to overcome challenges and seize emerging opportunities in connectivity. To explore this topic further, the session’s first panel discussion “Future Connectivity: Connected, Collaborative Computing Networks” examined how to leverage 5G and 6G while capitalizing on 3Cs networks.

As highlighted by Peter Vetter, President of Nokia Bell Labs Core Research, 6G is going to be the leading technology enabling the deployment of AI to its fullest. As network cloud continuum will play a central role across verticals, a priority is to forge a marketplace where multiple players can collaborate, industries can capitalize on specific AI models, and trustworthiness and security are safeguarded.

Concurrently, Damien Lucas, CEO of Scaleway, emphasised the need to reduce Europe’s dependencies, in particular in regard to hardware and cloud services. Moving towards next-generation connectivity, it is fundamental to also strengthen IT server manufacturing and cloud infrastructure. Furthermore, steps need to be made towards cloudifying networks to achieve more efficiency, while ensuring sustainability is high on the agenda. In connection to this, Claire Chauvin, Strategy Architecture and Standardisation Director at Orange, brought to attention the telecom operators’ perspective, stressing the importance of a continuous evolution in networks. Claire Chauvin underlined the need to experiment on use cases and large scale pilots, not only between telecom operators and vendors, but also with other industry players. A key takeaway was also the importance of embracing open-source solutions to enhance product competitiveness, facilitate collaboration, and optimize AI software portfolios.

As also depicted in the Draghi and Letta reports, Europe must address fragmentation to maintain its competitive edge. Panellists agreed that regulation should enable technology adoption, ensuring security, transparency, and accessibility, while also reducing regulatory burdens. This message echoed the high-level speech given at the MWC25 by the Executive Vice-president of the European Commission for Technological Sovereignty, Security and Democracy Henna Virkunnen, who underlined regulatory simplification as one of the three key pillars for unlocking Europe’s digital potential.

Connecting Advancements in Digital Infrastructures with Industry Needs

To connect the perspectives of the technological providers and telecom operators to the industry needs, the session’s second panel discussion “Digital Infrastructure in Practice: Use Cases for Europe’s Industrial Competitiveness” hosted representatives of the Automotive (5G Automotive Association), Smart Ports (Port of Barcelona) and Aerospace (Airbus Defence and Space) sectors to explore how they are leveraging next-generation connectivity.

At the Port of Barcelona, 5G is already improving safety, security, and logistics. While challenges still remain when it comes to cybersecurity and equipment, Catalina Grimalt Falco, Deputy General Director of Organization and Internal Resources at the Port of Barcelona, shared that the port is undergoing a major digital transformation driven by IoT, AI and automation and that real-time information is a must to increase efficiency and implement digital logistics corridors.

In the aerospace sector, quantum technologies and AI at the edge are being exploited in critical missions. In this regard, Quentin van de Geer, VP Engineering at Airbus Defence and Space, emphasized the importance of advancing standardisation, security of critical communications and cloud based infrastructure.

Similarly, Maxime Flament, CTO at 5GAA, underscored the importance of standards for further leveraging 5G. With the automotive sector being one of the initial targets of 5G, it is crucial to ensure standards are continuously integrated into verticals. Together with the SNS JU, the 5GAA has been working on a strategic agenda for 5G corridors, aimed to foster a coordinated approach to mobility services and 5G full scale adoption.

Showcasing the Advancements of SNS JU Funded Projects

A recurring theme throughout the session and the panel discussions was the need to strengthen European partnerships and ensure the continuity of long-term research in Europe as an enabler for innovation. With over 80 projects funded under the SNS JU, MWC25 provided a platform to showcase Europe’s advancements in Advanced 5G, 6G, AI, and future network technologies.

Present across multiple pavilions and stands, over 30 SNS JU-funded projects and partner stakeholders delivered demos and practical use cases spanning from AI-enabled sensing to sustainable network solutions.

6G SANDBOX is delivering an advanced experimentation facility designed to support 6G research and technology validation across Europe. The project is an experimental platform that introduces the concept of trial networks—fully configurable, end-to-end networks integrating both digital and physical nodes. These networks are distributed across key European locations, including Malaga, Athens, Berlin, and Oulu, and provide automated experimentation capabilities to third parties. A key element of their showcase was the “Digital Twins for 6G” technology, presented by Keysight, which creates a virtual model of a large-scale private network by integrating multiple data sources such as ray-tracing models, LIDAR data, telco configurations, laboratory measurements, and live telemetry.
At the InterDigital demo, an AI-enabled JCAS technology was showcased, leveraging 3GPP signals to enhance wireless network sensing and adaptability. This innovation, which is being further developed within 6G-SHINE, CENTRIC, and 6G-SANDBOX, has broad applications in smart homes, eHealth monitoring, immersive experiences, and autonomous vehicle navigation.
Additionally, the SNS JU visited iQuadrat projects in the Catalan Pavilion, where key demonstrations included SUNRISE-6G and 6G-INTENSE joint demo, as well as the 6G-DALI presentation. These projects play a vital role in the AI for 6G landscape, particularly in advancing AI for Zero-touch Network & Service Management.
The SNS JU also exchanged updates with the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), a sister agency managing the Connecting Europe Facility Digital EU funds, for which the SNS JU provides strategic guidance on 5G corridors.
The Centre Tecnològic de Telecommunications de Catalunya (CTTC) presented several demonstrations showcasing advancements in 6G, AI, and their applications in media and connected autonomous mobility. Key technologies presented included AI-powered 6G communications, multi-camera tracking for vehicular hazard detection, an immersive end-user VR experience, reconfiguration of accelerated functions in edge infrastructure, and GenOnet, a generative open xG simulation. These solutions have been developed through various Horizon Europe and national projects, highlighting the ongoing innovation in next-generation networks. Several research projects were prominently featured at the booth. 6G-REFERENCE showcased its contributions through visual displays and printed materials, while 6G-NTN presented an animated video and expert interviews on non-terrestrial networks. Additionally, VERGE and UNITY-6G provided engaging content on emerging 6G applications, demonstrating innovative use cases.
6G-EWOC, presented by the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (UPC), showcased the multimodal fusion demo, which leverages a radar that identifies the distance of objects alongside a camera that recognizes people. As a result, the technology enables the association of a distance to the detected persons.

Additionally, the SNS JU seized the opportunity of MWC25 to strengthen collaborations and explore synergies through strategic visits to Finland, the UK, i2CAT, and the French Pavilion. The SNS JU team also visited Trials Net, hosted at the Italian Pavillion. TrialsNet is deploying large-scale trials to implement a set of innovative 6G applications based on various technologies such as Cobots, Metaverse, massive twinning, Internet of Senses, and others, covering a wide range of domains. More projects, like 6G-VERSUS and BeGreen were hosted at the Finnish, Greek and Belgian Pavilions.

The SNS JU also exchanged updates with the European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), a sister agency that also manages the Connecting Europe Facility Digital EU funds and for which the SNS JU provides strategic guidance on 5G corridors.

Each of these key players contributes to advancing the future of connectivity and digital transformation in Europe.

Closing the session, Erzsébet Fitori, Executive Director of SNS JU, reinforced the critical role of research and innovation in securing Europe’s digital leadership. With a holistic approach that integrates connectivity, computing infrastructure development, the strengthening of Europe’s cloud ecosystem, and advancements in standardisation, research and innovation can work in tandem to drive business growth, close the innovation gap and deliver significant societal impact.

In our fast pace changing world, MWC25 reaffirmed Europe’s steadfast commitment to achieving and maintaining a leading role in global digital innovation. By fostering strategic collaboration and pioneering research, the SNS JU and its ecosystem of stakeholders are shaping the future of connectivity and securing Europe’s competitive edge.