Last week, the Spanish city of Barcelona woke up busier than usual welcoming over 100.000 attendees and 3.000 exhibitors in which we can consider one of the largest, if not the largest, technological event in the world: Mobile World Congress 2025, celebrated from the 3rd to the 6th of March.
6G-REFERENCE couldn’t miss this relevant date gathering leaders across industries, policymakers, founders and tech innovators that came together for the future of connectivity. We were present the four days of the event in the booth of our coordinator, Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC), located in the stand 210, booth 4, inside the Catalonia Pavilion in Hall Congress Square (between Halls 6 and 7).
There, we networked with the attendees and were very honored to receive a very special visit on Monday the 3rd, the first day of MWC 2025. Several top-ranked officers from the Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) and the Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG-CNECT) of the European Commission enjoyed a showcase of cutting-edge Research and Development (R&D) results and proofs-of-concept from 6G-REFERENCE, represented by our coordinator Ignacio Llamas, Senior Researcher at CTTC. Besides, two more projects also addressing sustainability aspects of 6G networks, Verge, represented by Nikolaos Bartzoudis, and Unity-6G, led by Engin Zeydan, presented their progress too.
These projects are pushing the boundaries of 6G and future networks shaping the next generation of connectivity. In our case, at 6G-REFERENCE, we are developing 6G hardware enablers constituting a reference design of distributed radios for a cell-free joint communication and sensing system operating in FR3 bands in urban areas.
The representatives from SNS JU and DG-CNECT who visited us were:
- Erzsébet Fitori (Executive Director, SNS JU).
- Javier Albares (Head of 5G/6G Programs, SNS JU).
- Pavlos Fournogerakis (Deputy 5G/6G Head of Programs, SNS JU).
- Miguel González Sancho (Head of Unit CyberSecurity Technology & Capacity Building, European Commission).
- Agustín Díaz-Pinés (Deputy Head of Unit Future Connectivity Systems, European Commission).
- Chiara Mazzone (Programme Officer, SNS JU).
- Hakima Chauchi (Vice-chair, SNS JU State Representatives Group).
Their visit reinforced the importance of collaborative efforts in accelerating 6G innovation and driving Europe’s leadership in advanced connectivity technologies.
This video has been recorded and edited by the CTTC team
During the week of MWC 2025, our coordinator Ignacio Llamas was joined by other project representatives: Aswathylakshmi Pallathadka, Dheeraj Kumar, Antón Aguilar, Lluís Gifre Renom, Amir Ashtari and Carles Anton Haro from CTTC; together with Laura Argilés and and Hua Wang, from our partners AUSTRALO and ETH Zürich, respectively.
The SNS JU at Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2025
The Smart Networks and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) opened Mobile World Congress 2025 at 9:00h on Monday the 3rd of March with a session titled “Digital Infrastructure of the Future: Shaping Europe’s Competitive Edge”, connecting industry leaders, innovators, and policymakers driving Europe’s connectivity, celebrated in the Marconi Stage in Hall 6.
The panels dove deep into the future of networks and services innovation, as well as technological convergence within and beyond the telecommunications sector. The speakers delved into how Europe’s digital infrastructure is evolving from transmission-centric paradigms toward a computing-centric future. They explored the critical role of converging technologies, such as radio access networks (RAN), edge computing, and artificial intelligence (AI), in shaping Europe’s digital economy and sustaining its global competitiveness.
- The Panel 1 “Future Connectivity: Connected, Collaborative Computing Networks (3C)” joined industry leaders and investors to discuss breakthroughs in AI-driven networks, cloud computing and 6G infrastructure.
- The Panel 2 “Digital Infrastructure in Practice” brought together real-world use cases from Deutsche Bahn, automotive, logistics, and smart ports industries to showcase how advanced connectivity is driving European industrial competitiveness.
Moreover, 30 SNS JU projects demonstrated their innovations at Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, highlighting Europe’s advancement in 6G and future networks and services research and development.
Together, we are shaping Europe’s new era of digital innovation.
