Deadline: September 30, 2025
Applications are open for the GSMA Foundry Excellence Awards 2026. The Awards return for their fifth edition, championing innovation and impact in the mobile and digital industries. This program offers participants a prestigious platform to showcase completed projects that set new benchmarks for technology, creativity, and market leadership.
Awards span five industry-defining categories:
- Intelligent Networks & AI-Driven Infrastructure: Automation and intelligence in telecom networks
- Next-Generation Connectivity & Access: Expanding traditional and satellite connectivity options
- Trust, Security & User Protection: Safeguarding consumers, enterprises, and networks against evolving threats
- Enterprise Innovation & New Revenue Models: Enabling new business streams powered by mobile technology
- Cross-Cutting Excellence: Recognizing transformative solutions that bridge multiple thematic areas and set new standards for the industry.
Benefits
- Industry Recognition: Demonstrate your expertise and leadership to industry peers.
- Networking opportunities: Celebrate and connect with the industry’s most influential people.
- Brand visibility: Elevate your brand’s profile and visibility, boost awareness, credibility and market presence.
- Market differentiation: Differentiate yourself from the competition by emphasising your unique value proposition.
- Recognition for excellence: Gain recognition for your innovative thinking and dedication to excellence.
- Receive a trophy: Winners will receive their trophy at MWC Barcelona 2026.
Eligibility
- Open to any company operating in, or adjacent to, the telecoms industry worldwide, who have completed a Foundry project / initiative within 2025 – entries can be submitted for Foundry initiatives/projects that are still in progress and completed no later than December 31, 2025.
- If you have an existing Foundry project, service, or initiative in progress, let them know quickly, and they will determine whether it can be incorporated and counted as a Foundry project.
Evaluation
- Innovation & creativity: uniqueness, originality, proprietary rights and centrality of the initiative.
- Achievement & recognition: market traction and technology readiness.
- Potential / Commercial use: roadmap to scalability, potential for growth & sustainability.
- Impact: contribution towards solving a real-life challenge, whether overcoming a specific obstacle or providing a solution to a prevalent issue.
- Timelines: for initiatives completed in the calendar year 2025.
- Projects must be a GSMA Foundry project at the time of award submission, either in progress or delivered.
Application
For more information, see FAQ and visit GSMA Awards.
