5G Forum 2026: Industry pivots to business applications to monetize 5G

Kagan joined Spain's top mobile industry players at 5G Forum, held in Seville, May 12-13, to discuss the future of 5G. As the technology matures and coverage in many markets draws close to 100%, 5G is beginning to gain greater traction in industrial and business applications than among consumers. B2B has always been where 5G showed the most promise, and with the migration to 5G standalone (5G SA) and 5G advanced (5G-A), networks are better positioned to test and scale these applications.

The pressure on operators to monetize 5G is particularly strong, given the billions spent on rolling out fiber and 5G in parallel. This is especially true in Spain, one of Western Europe's most advanced and competitive telecom markets, where 91.6% of broadband households are on fiber and 5G coverage reaches 99.3% of the population, well ahead of the government's 2025 target of 75%.

Spain is also a leader in 5G standalone deployment, being one of only a handful of global markets where all major mobile network operators (MNOs) have launched commercial SA services. As of June 2025, 5G SA coverage reached 98.1% of the population, up from 40.1% a year before, according to the latest available report from the Ministry for Digital Transformation.

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5G adoption, however, has remained low. By year-end 2025, over six years since 5G services were first launched in the country in June 2019, only 38.3% of mobile subscribers (excluding machine-to-machine subscriptions) in Spain were connected to 5G networks. This compares to 4G's 77.3% adoption rate in 2019, six years on from the technology's first commercial launch, and current 80.3% penetration.

5G's slow take-up rate is not exclusive to Spain. Carriers across Europe have also struggled to achieve subscriber growth that justifies their high investments, as Kagan reported last year and presented at the conference in Seville. According to our research, 5G adoption in 2024 reached less than 40% of mobile subscribers in 11 of the 14 European countries analyzed.

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"Adoption of the technology is slower than we expected," said Telefónica Tech. Chief Revenue Officer María Jesús Almazor. In the executive's view, service providers must adopt a more holistic approach, considering digital systems as a whole rather than a particular technology, to identify specific use cases that meet customers' needs. "We've had a change in focus," said Almazor, "we've gone from talking about coverage, deployments, speeds or latency to talking about the value generated by the services built on that technology infrastructure. The technology doesn't matter; what matters is the impact it has on services, institutions, companies and clients."

"We've done the most difficult part, which is deployment," said Almazor. "The challenge now is to accelerate adoption in order to enter a more competitive stage than where we are now. We must go beyond public initiatives such as Cloud 2030 and Ruta Andalucía, or internal private applications, but collaborate and look to more global initiatives in order to reach the final objective of increasing adoption."

"5G SA and 5G Advanced are already a reality," pointed out MásOrange Chief Network Officer Mónica Sala, touting the telco's role as the first in Spain to launch 5G-A, which she said is effectively 6G. "5G slicing is the most advanced application of 5G SA," she said, citing a project with the Port of Barcelona where slicing allowed the "lowest latency possible." The telco also uses its standalone network for its "Fast Track" solution, allowing it to rapidly adapt to high-density usage during events.

The highlight of the event was Telefónica's live demo of its AI-enabled drone-as-a-service offering, featuring devices that can be deployed at a moment's notice anywhere in the country and piloted remotely from the telco's National Operations Center in Madrid. "The real challenge was not the technology itself but to make it scalable," said product manager Salomé Sarmiento.

The service has already been used by Telefónica customers for wildfire prevention, campus security and infrastructure maintenance.

Future technologies

As Telefónica Tech's Almazor sees it, talent is also essential. She highlighted the need to partner with universities and researchers to develop new applications. At 5G Forum, many universities were present, including Seville, Málaga, León and Extremadura. José Ignacio Alonso, a professor at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, presented 5GMADNet, Spain's first private 5G network on mmWave frequencies, which are only beginning to be made available to operators through regulator auctions and are expected to significantly increase capacity in high-density locations.

Málaga University assistant professor Javier Rivas highlighted the university's role in the 6GPATH project, researching use cases for 6G networks in healthcare, education, smart cities and agriculture, among others.

Ministry for Digital Transformation head of spectrum management Julia Criado warned, however, that "6G should not distract from 5G," highlighting that the current technology still has a long way to go.

5G Forum organizer Medina Media's executive director, María Medina, closed the event by highlighting the increased participation of women in the industry, reflected in the event's lineup, comprising 40% women.

Mobile Investor is a regular feature from S&P Global Market Intelligence Kagan.