At MWC 2026, one idea came through with unusual clarity: in telecom’s next phase, partnerships are not adjacent to growth strategy, they are growth strategy.
That reflects a deeper shift in the industry. Telecom is no longer shaped by standalone infrastructure decisions or isolated technology bets. Cloud-native networks, Open RAN, AI and automation have already redrawn the architecture. The real question now is whether those capabilities can be translated into business outcomes quickly enough and at sufficient scale to matter.
That is where the partnership model is being rewritten.
The Power of Partnerships panel at MWC brought together global leaders to explore what a more mature partnership model looks like.
Moderated by Saad Javed, Head of Global Partner Alliance and Indirect Go-To-Market Program, Rakuten Symphony, the panel included:
Telecom has already entered the era of cloud-native networks, Open RAN, AI and automation. The harder question is whether it can operationalize innovation fast enough to create business value.
“While technology builds a foundation, collaboration builds the revenue.”
Technology remains essential, but operators are increasingly measuring success through three more immediate lenses: the ability to create new revenue streams, improve cost structures and elevate customer experience.
In that context, the silicon-to-services model becomes more than a technical framework. It becomes a way of aligning the ecosystem around the KPIs that matter most to the customer.
Partnerships should no longer be viewed simply as delivery mechanisms. They are increasingly monetization mechanisms.
In a more software-driven, multi-stakeholder telecom model, value is orchestrated. As Saad underlines, “No single entity can innovate or scale alone.” This captures how telecom value is now created: across infrastructure, software, integration, services and market execution.
Growth depends more on connected execution across the ecosystem. As Patel noted, “I don’t think any individual stakeholder can generate or monetize that value, so we have to work together.” In telecom, it opens the door to a more connected model of value creation — one in which innovation is strengthened by collaboration and monetization is accelerated through alignment.
If cloud is to serve as the foundation for upper layers such as Open RAN and OSS, it cannot be treated simply as infrastructure modernization. It has to provide the performance, security and scalability required to support real network workloads and service agility at scale.
As Guaspari of Sunset Technologies noted, operators are increasingly in a position to place more network workloads on cloud platforms, with containerized solutions making that shift more practical and scalable.
For Rakuten Symphony and its partners, that creates a more meaningful role for cloud — not just as a base layer, but as an enabler of the upper stack. When cloud is robust enough to support Open RAN and OSS, it becomes the platform on which flexibility, orchestration and future service innovation can scale.
If the architecture changes globally, the proof point lies in how it lands locally. That is especially true in LATAM, where Open RAN is emerging as a meaningful opportunity because it offers operators a path toward greater flexibility in competitive markets.
That is where regional expertise becomes a force multiplier. “If you don’t have the capacity to execute and know the market, you will have a great product and no capacity to execute”, according to Mauricio Gonzalez, Head of Telco Sales, Isbel.
The inverse is equally true: when strong technology is paired with strong local execution, the path from innovation to impact becomes far more direct.
The shift away from conventional vendor relationships toward deeper, outcome-based alliances is becoming more pronounced. The focus is moving beyond cost and scope alone, toward business outcomes, shared risk and shared success.
Guaspari described the value of proximity in practical terms: “Knowing the end user, knowing the customer, knowing the pain point, being in the same time zone, speaking the same language is already an asset.” The strongest ecosystems are not just technically capable. They are context-aware, trusted and built to move with the market.
What emerges is a more confident model for telecom growth, one based on co-creation, shared accountability and the ability to turn collective capability into commercial momentum.
That is also what makes Rakuten Symphony’s Intelligent Growth narrative resonate. Growth today is not just about deploying advanced technology. It is about connecting the right partners, in the right markets, around the right outcomes.
As Saad concluded, “The future of industry is basically linked to the strength and depth of our collaborative efforts.” At MWC 2026, that felt more like a statement of intent: telecom’s next wave of growth will be built together.
