Eric Schmidt, Google's renowned ex-CEO and technological visionary, sympathized with the challenges faced by operators during his Tuesday keynote at this year's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

Schmidt touted increasing regulation and the high cost of network upgrades, while data prices continue to fall even as users consume more data, as reasons the carriers have their work cut out for them.

He said Google is “critically dependent” on wireless infrastructure being built out and stressed the need for collaboration amongst the many players in the industry. 

“Operators and regulators have to sit down and come to some sort of a rational collaboration,” Schmidt said.

Resisting the urge to plug Google in front of a captive audience, Schmidt delivered an inspiring talk that envisioned the role technology will play in fundamentally transforming the global society going forward.

Schmidt stressed the need for all players to grow infrastructure in such a way that more of the world is connected, whether through wireless or fixed broadband technologies. While the current 1 billion connected smartphones is a lot, Schmidt conceded that there’s still 6 billion people who have never played Angry Birds and who have no idea what the iOS versus Android debate is all about.

Still, he said, technology really is changing the planet.

“We’re beginning to see science fiction become a reality,” Schmidt said, touting coming innovations such as driverless cars, virtual reality, as well as existing ones like eBooks, Google Maps, voice recognition, and automated translation.

Schmidt talked about a global division of classes based primarily on the level of connectivity available to various groups of people. He said that while wireless broadband capacity, speed and usage in developed regions will continue to see exponential growth, some areas will be well served by any connectivity at all. 

"The smartphone revolution will be universal,” Schmidt said, “and a mobile solution at least at the level of today will be available to just about everyone."

For those instances where a standard wireless or fixed connection might not be practical, Schmidt touted mesh networks as possible solutions for such populations, explaining that the low-cost smartphones of the future won’t necessarily need to be connected directly to the Internet.

“Instead of a centralized connection, smartphones can share amongst themselves,” Schmidt said. “Mesh is a simpler option, a stepping stone, for getting communities connected.”

As for putting more smartphones in the hands of more people, it’s a simple case of getting prices down. When asked in a Q&A after his talk whether anyone is working on Android for feature phones, Schmidt quipped, “Why not just get a smartphone?”

"When will smartphones cost what feature phones do? The answer is next year," Schmidt said.

Beyond Android, Google’s reach and impact around the globe is impressive. One audience member from Iran asked whether Schmidt could do anything about its search engine being censored in the country. Schmidt said that as part of U.S. sanctions against the country, Google hands were tied on the matter.

But Schmidt agreed with the audience member about opening Google’s services up to Iranians. “I’m with you,” he said, “but prison, it's like there's no bandwidth in there," he joked, implying that breaking U.S. sanctions would be illegal.

Google's products are currently blocked or censored in about 25 of the 125 countries in where it operates. Schmidt said that while technology will continue to spread ideas and improve lives around the globe there will inevitably be those in power—dictators and oppressive regimes—who will try to control it for their own, selfish purposes.

Still, he believes, we’re on the right course and asked that those in the crowd, developers and entrepreneurs alike, “resolve to create a world where everyone has a chance to be connected.”