Mobile World Live (MWL) brings you our top three picks of the week as the European Commission targeted Apple’s App Store policies, India wrapped up its latest 5G auction and five European operators updated their open RAN priorities.

European Commission accuses Apple of DMA violation

What happened: The European Commission (EC) opened a fresh investigation into whether Apple violated its Digital Markets Act (DMA) rules with its App Store policies.

Why it matters: The EC stated preliminary findings in an investigation into the tech giant’s compliance with the DMA regarding its App Store indicated Apple’s rules prevented developers from freely steering consumers to alternative channels for offers and content. TECHnalysis Research president and chief analyst Bob O’Donnell told Yahoo Finance Apple will have to make some tweaks to its policies ahead of the 25 March 2025 deadline because it is an “important enough market that they’re going to have to follow some of these requirements that the EU is putting into place”.

India operators spend $1.3B in tepid 5G auction

What happened: A delayed spectrum auction in India concluded this week, raising a total of INR113.4 billion ($1.3 billion), as the country’s three largest operators spent a fraction of the sums previously doled out for 5G frequencies.

Why it matters: Bharti Airtel emerged as the top bidder after spending INR68.6 billion on 97MHz of spectrum, followed by cash-strapped Vodafone Idea which bought INR35.1 billions’ worth and Reliance Jio earmarked a sum just shy of INR10 billion. Prashant Singhal, TMT Leader at EY, told The Hindu BusinessLine the lukewarm auction “concluded on expected lines”.

European giants expand on open RAN wishlist

What happened: A consortium of some of the largest operators in Europe issued the fourth version of an open RAN technical priorities document to spur market deployments.

Why it matters: Telefonica, Orange, Vodafone Group, Telecom Italia and Deutsche Telekom jointly published the document that includes updated requirements around Service Management and Orchestration (SMO) related to AI and ML frameworks.