LIVE FROM MWC25 LAS VEGAS: GSMA CMO Lara Dewar kicked off the event by highlighting how the first Apollo moon landing 50 years ago served as a blueprint for today’s telecommunications industry.

“What strikes me about that first mission is not just the engineering genius, but the boldness and bravery needed to make the impossible, possible,” she said. “It’s a boldness that resonates with us in the mobile industry too.”

In her opening keynote, Dewar stated lessons from the Apollo moon missions strike a chord across three key areas: connectivity, trust and agility.

Connectivity
She noted when NASA planned the Apollo 11 moon landing it had to do something never done before and that it had to do the landing without losing communication.

“Connectivity unlocks possibility,” she explained. “It was true then, and it remains true today.”

She stated North America is one of the global industry leaders with 55 per cent of customers using 5G networks.

The mobile industry contributes about $1.6 trillion, or 5 per cent, to North America’s GDP, which is expected to double to $3.7 trillion, or 10.2 per cent of GDP, by 2030.

“As 5G matures, we are now focused on completing the 5G journey, unlocking new commercial opportunities through standalone networks,” Dewar said. “As enterprises continue their digital transformation journeys, our networks and technologies are not endpoints. They are launchpads for innovation.”

Trust
During the Apollo 11 moon landing, Dewar noted astronauts, engineers, and mission controllers faced life-or-death decisions every day, which required everyone to trust the systems they built.

“As our world becomes more interconnected, trust has never been more essential,” she stated. “When we trust our teams, systems and data, we can move boldly, exploring new opportunities and developing new services.”

She cited the Telco AI Cloud Pilot as an example of the telecom industry players working together.

“Here, innovators from AT&T, Nvidia, Dell Technologies, Archetype AI and Khasm Labs have worked together to explore how network operators can become AI cloud providers,” she explained. “Together the team has developed and validated a blueprint for leveraging edge infrastructure.”

She also called out the GSMA Intelligence Online AI Inference Calculator, which is a tool that helps organisations model the benefits of running AI workloads at the network edge.

“Trust turns risk into opportunity. It gives us a safe space to explore new ideas and innovate together.”

Agility
While trust turns risk into opportunity, it also creates the foundation for innovation “and gives us the confidence to take the next leap forward,” according to Dewar.

“Which is where agility, our third lesson from Apollo, becomes essential,” she noted. “The Apollo programme wasn’t just one mission; it was a series of iterations.

“Today, our industry needs the same mindset,” she explained. “Agility will win the future.”

Dewar highlighted North America’s history as a technology leader, which includes direct-to-device services from T-Mobile US and Starlink and Skylo Technologies powering Verizon’s SOS messaging.

She also called out the development of open RAN and AI-driven RAN architectures and GSMA Open Gateway as pivotal technology innovations.

“And so, as the mobile industry we must commit to transforming ourselves into trusted digital transformation partners,” she concluded. “Agility is no longer optional. It’s how we win the future.”