With MWC Barcelona over for another year, we wanted to take a chance to take a look back at the key activity that we saw for the GSMA Partnership Programme this year, including four exciting new Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs), one panel session and a partner being showcased on the GSMA Pavilion.
But first, a quick introduction for those who aren’t familiar with the GSMA Partnership Programme. This is an initiative that’s open to anyone in the mobile ecosystem, who has a compelling solution that they are looking to scale up and grow.
As Jason Smith, Head of Partnerships Program puts it, “We want to connect innovative businesses with our expertise and reach to accelerate growth and impact. We seek partners at any stage whose compelling, innovative solutions deliver clear value to telcos and connected industries. If your proposition fits, we want to talk.”
Three MoUs were signed over the course of the week at the GSMA Pavilion, emphasising the diversity of challenges and range of solutions that are being addressed by the initiative.
One of the key areas the GSMA Industry Services, via the Partnership Programme, is trying to help engage the industry is around circularity. As the GSMA’s “Rethinking Mobile Phones: The Business Case for Circularity” whitepaper highlights, there is common acceptance of the benefits of a more sustainable business, and yet, transitioning to a circular economy is complex and required collaboration throughout the ecosystem.
Let’s meet the companies that GSMA Industry Services are partnering with:
Closing the Loop
Closing the Loop have been established for more than 10 years and many in the telco ecosystem may already be familiar with them – particularly after they were nominated for a GLOMO at MWC Barcelona in both 2025 and 2026 for their work with Vodafone.
Their ‘One for One’ solution is quite simple – when you add a new phone to the market, Closing the Loop collects and recycle a scrap phone. This means, from a consumer’s perspective, that theirnew phone directly leads to the reduction of electronic waste.
The service enables mobile operators to turn circular thinking into attractive and business-supporting device propositions, by linking the sale of handsets to the collection and responsible recycling of end-of-life devices. The latter are collected by Closing the Loop in countries that lack proper waste systems. There is clear alignment in customer service and sustainability goals between Closing the Loop, GSMA and the wider mobile ecosystem.
Joost de Kluijver, Co-founder and CEO, said this partnership was important as “The GSMA is globally respected as a unifier of the mobile ecosystem. We’re keen to team up and expand the value that ‘One for One’, our service, delivers to this great industry. Anyone interested in positive business environments and societal change should be excited by this partnership.”
Recycle Global Exchange (RGX)
Another collaboration broadly under the sustainability and circular economy efforts, is one with US-based Recycle Global Exchange (RGX).
GSMA and RGX signed an MoU at MWC Barcelona to explore collaboration on industry backed approaches to Enterprise Asset Disposition (EAD) across the mobile ecosystem, covering Telecom equipment, Network infrastructure, Corporate IT equipment, Mobility devices and Critical Raw materials.
By partnering with RGX, the GSMA will connect its members and ecosystem with localised Service Providers, reducing carbon footprint whilst also delivering competitive returns through bidding and resource management- all managed on a single, automated end-to-end platform.
Their ability to provide a neutral platform that acts as an enabler to support industry wide sustainability initiatives. There is clear alignment with the work GSMA does, and we’re excited to see how this grows.
NAGRAVISION
Our third and final MoU signing was with NAGRAVISION, the media and entertainment division of the Kudelski Group. Focussing on their NAGRA Scout solution which is designed to provide cybersecurity directly to subscribers. This collaboration will help both parties to explore operator integrated cybersecurity services.
NAGRA Scout is the consumer-facing cybersecurity pillar of the wider NAGRAVISION portfolio, that also includes streaming security, antipiracy, device security and the OpenTV ENTera platform. While NAGRAVISION protects premium content, platforms and devices across the video ecosystem, NAGRA Scout extends that protection into the subscriber’s digital life—covering the home network, connected devices and mobile usage.
This collaboration aligns with GSMA’s broader fraud prevention and anti-scam efforts across the mobile ecosystem, including United Against Scams, a collective industry-wide focus to safeguard digital trust.
Stéphane Le Dreau, SVP, Product Management & Sales Development at NAGRAVISION, said of the partnership, “By introducing NAGRA Scout to GSMA’s global ecosystem, we’re offering a powerful, carrier-grade solution that detects, analyses and responds to cyber risks in real-time. The partnership reinforces our shared commitment to protect networks, safeguard subscribers and enable operators to deliver trusted, resilient digital services at scale.”
Metafore
Whilst some of these companies have been around for years, Metafore.ai is a much younger company but their solution is no less compelling. Metafore uses AI agents to orchestrate enterprise operations – transforming fragmented workflows into one intelligent system.
Having signed an MoU prior to MWC, Metafore demonstrated their solution all week at the GSMA Pavilion, giving users the chance to interact with the Digital Agent in real time and see for themselves how it works.
What makes this particularly compelling for telecoms organisations is that self-evolving agents can collaborate across teams, departments and data. This means it can automate support, streamline partner operations and continually unlock value from every customer interaction.
GSMA Services Partnerships: Where growth meets industry impact
If you weren’t able to join us at the MWC Broadcast Stage on Thursday morning, you missed an exhilarating session hosted by Jason, but also featuring Ana Maria Alvarez (CMO, Closing the Loop), Andre Mendes (Key Account Director, NAGRAVISION, Kudelski Group) and Marilyn Malpus (Services Partnerships & Commercial Director, GSMA). Catch up with the session here.
As well as hearing how the Partnerships developed, and the plans for the future with NAGRAVISION and Closing the Loop, it was also interesting to hear from Marilyn about the role of the customer test group.
Marilyn explained that the Customer Test Group gives its members a direct route to influence what we build next. It’s how we test prospective partnerships, with operators providing early feedback on relevance, feasibility, and what “good” looks like for implementation and adoption.
“It’s also an opportunity for members to propose solutions they want to see brought to market.
If you want to find out more about the Partnership Programme or any of our partners, please use the links below:
GSMA Services Partnership Programme – GSMA Services
One Device Collected for One Device Sold – Closing the Loop
Recycle Global Exchange – Enterprise IT Asset Disposition Marketplace
NAGRA Scout | Consumer Cybersecurity Solutions
Metafore | AI-Native Orchestration Platform for Enterprise
Some photos of the event
