Mobile World Congress is the industry’s biggest showcase of the year, and if you can manage to sift through the hype and the sheer volume of show news, you can get a pretty decent idea of where the telecom industry is putting its energy for the coming year.
Unsurprisingly, 5G was even bigger this year than last year. We finally have the first 5G standards release, and everyone wants to be the first to offer 5G services — even if some of them are actually kinda-sorta 4G. But carriers are now thinking about their 4G investments as groundwork for 5G or “5G readiness”; or at T-Mobile US CTO Neville Ray put it, “Every dollar we invest in our network is a 5G dollar.”
Verizon’s SVP and Chief Technology Architect Ed Chan observed: “Some of the things that caught my eye were the technology demonstrations. Compared to two years ago, many of those demos have matured and evolved from concepts to actual prototypes. And the volume of those demos has increased too. I saw many more examples of technologies like augmented and virtual reality, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, precision remote robotics, and other technologies than in previous years.”
Day 3️⃣ thoughts from Ed Chan: https://t.co/N1JGxSf4ng #MWC18
— Verizon News (@VerizonNews) March 1, 2018
The 5G announcements ranged from partnerships and network timeline projections to hardware and device testing.
Now that the #3GPP standards are set we can proudly say our radios were #5G NR ready already back in 2015 – so this is the one we're showing at #MWC18. More about it here: https://t.co/I6Y8DZJDzM pic.twitter.com/GEbgeDJvGg
— Ericsson Networks (@EricssonNetwork) March 1, 2018
Impressive 4.9G Massive MIMO from @Nokia lights up the Path to #5G. Presented also to Rohde&Schwarz at #MWC18. pic.twitter.com/2nDs7mghNI
— Harry Kaib (@hkaib2010) March 1, 2018
5G #wireless connectivity, the wait is over. Huawei made the world’s first commercial terminal device a reality at #MWC18 today. Read on: https://t.co/U6DGPxZat1 pic.twitter.com/sxQiHWtzME
— Huawei (@Huawei) February 28, 2018
We're partnering with @Samsung to develop #5G New Radio Interoperability Device Testing for 28 GHz! The first public demonstration is on display at #MWC18. https://t.co/4l4vbnhAaE pic.twitter.com/tka9Aht6PM
— NI (National Instruments) (@NIglobal) February 26, 2018
But some companies were thinking even beyond terrestrial coverage, with a mission to put LTE on the moon and robotic heads in space:
One giant step for networking. Today, Nokia is selected by @VodafoneGroup to be its technology partner for #missiontothemoon https://t.co/2aJQngLga0 #MWC18 pic.twitter.com/j5RbYbbwcn
— Nokia (@nokia) February 27, 2018
.@VodafoneGroup chose @Nokia to be its partner for its #MissiontotheMoon project. Bell Labs will create a space-grade Ultra Compact Network that will be the lightest ever, less than 1 kilo to help deliver 4G. #MWC18 @PTScientists @Audi #STEM #ThisDayinSTEM https://t.co/5OcN3Six96 pic.twitter.com/J4TV3epbMA
— Bell Labs (@BellLabs) February 27, 2018
IBM is launching a floating, talking robotic head into space that will work with astronauts https://t.co/xcPOQs3vKb @IBMIoT #MWC18 pic.twitter.com/xpsZ5ShWfj
— Evan Kirstel the $B2B Techfluencer (@EvanKirstel) February 28, 2018
While Huawei took the virtual-reality lunar approach:
Who wants to try a lunar mission? If it were up to our #5G #CloudVR system, everyone! This is our one small step, but one giant leap for Cloud VR. https://t.co/raNyMZvhbt pic.twitter.com/nk38HBrDJP
— Huawei (@Huawei) February 28, 2018
How’s this for a demo? Nokia’s CMO Barry French promised that if the company hit certain KPIs, that he’d have his head shaved live at MWC.
.@nokia CMO @bhfrench keeps his promise and gets his head shaved at #5G speed as Nokia surpass success KPIs at #mwc18 – go Barry!! pic.twitter.com/RZGj1uxZpp
— Steve Hateley (@shateley) February 28, 2018
We have reached a point in technology development where elevated drone-charging stations are being integrated into infrastructure. Crazy.
Intel CityBeacon Intelligent Smart City Hub with drone charging station on top gives you eyes in the city when you need it. #MWC18 #IoT pic.twitter.com/uOiwYx2kUC
— Award Solutions, Inc (@awardsolutions) February 28, 2018
There was a great diversity of smartphone devices, as shown below:
Outcome of MWC 2018 🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/5b9ROA2Szo
— Alexey Rashevskiy (@OgreSwamp) March 3, 2018
The iPhone X’s notch didn’t exactly get much love as a design element when that device came out, but it’s spreading anyway. Notches everywhere!
The dumbest smartphone trend I've seen at #mwc18: Notch fever https://t.co/1hPSGyJ8BC pic.twitter.com/xefUBLo5rF
— Mike Murphy (@mcwm) February 28, 2018
The notch is spreading for no good reason: the MWC was rife with iPhone X lookalikes https://t.co/8EqiVXeWBe pic.twitter.com/CYp8zHDJbl
— GSMArena.com (@gsmarena_com) March 1, 2018
Also, so many robots:
That's a wrap from Day 3 at #MWC18! More to follow tomorrow on the final day of Mobile World Congress 2018. pic.twitter.com/1oeVa8TkLe
— GSMA (@GSMA) February 28, 2018
Korean start-up Circulus hopes its robot will be your new best friend. More #MWC18 and tech news: https://t.co/2h4r9ZoDo1 pic.twitter.com/ouxb4jk7ut
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 1, 2018
And what might we see at MWC 2019? National Instruments is on it, already:
.@bobodtech thinks that by this time next year, we'll see the first #5G enabled phones. We're ready to help make that a reality. https://t.co/ohAIoWl4kL #MWC18 #InnovateFaster pic.twitter.com/yN0lRst9hQ
— NI (National Instruments) (@NIglobal) February 28, 2018
Image copyright: quka / 123RF Stock Photo
