Mobile World Congress, my questions
The “mobile-gate” is here: the MWC seems to be doomed once companies as Ericsson, Sony, Vodafone, Orange, LG or Intel have decided to skip the ride. Coronavirus is the reason behind this, and it seems pretty clear that in the absence of this disease, the MWC would have been another record-breaking edition… Or not.
MWC has grown under the sun and water of 5G. From Plaza de España to Hospitalet, the promise of a brand new mobile technology that requires a complete and radical redesign in the network architecture, moving from hardware networks to software networks. This promise has been fulfilled already: the technical demos were almost the same lately. And companies do know what they need to move to 5G, starting from NSA to SA and waiting for investors deciding to make good use of that technology to develop new business and services. But this is not a matter of hardware. It’s a matter of R&D. Mobile research and development are now in the hands of developers and researchers to design business and services capable of justifying the transition from 4G+ to 5G.
Fuente: Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by Johns Hopkins CSSE
IoT, connected car, transportation, logistics…. and smartphones, of course. But all of these areas are not advanced enough to go into such a transformation to be integrated into the 5G networks. I would like an MWC to witness real 5G SA applications, ready to be deployed. But guess this MWC is going to be more of the same old stuff.
It’s too soon to talk about 6G, too late to talk about the potential of 5G: the potential of 5G has been monetized already. Or monetized enough. For years and for the good, of course. Guess the reality of 5G today doesn’t justify the magnitude of such an event as the MWC as we know it. I’m not saying MWC is not necessary: just I’m saying MWC needs to be scaled down to accommodate the real value of the potential of the mobile business.
5G is now in the hands of those who are in charge of deploying the technology, more than in the hands of those who design the technology
My questions are: what could companies be able to show us this MWC about Mobile Technologies? And, what kind of business could companies demonstrate interesting enough to overcome the threat of a Coronavirus?
My last question is: should the Coronavirus had appeared two or three editions ago, companies would have decided to skip the event?
Guess the next MWC will be smaller. Small enough to fit the transition requirements from hardware to services. An MWC small enough to focus on the essence of the mobile technologies: network slicing, latency, massive MIMO, SDN, NFV are already here, the next step is more about real applications than technology exhibitions. Decisions about 5G businesses are taken even in the administration. One example is the Huawei ban, quite convenient to make the 5G business more “equitable”, by the way. The UE is talking about 5G as well. 5G is now in the hands of those who are in charge of deploying the technology more than in the hands of those who design the technology.
These past years companies have been investing in marketing to show off and attract the big money from telcos all over the world. This investment has to be returned. MWC became a huge monster because of this. It’s almost impossible to get the whole picture of it: companies and 4 days. Millions of dollars spent every year. But this money is not to pay parties. At least not all of it.
Events evolve. I guess Coronavirus is not an excuse but an opportunity to jump out of this moving car without brakes. Or an opportunity to think about the future of MWC in the era of 5G. Most of the improvements of 4G were made to accommodate 5G technologies.
Published By Manu Arenas
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.
