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Mobile World Congress (MWC) is a convention packed to the brim with the latest ideas and this year’s edition was no different. MWC 23 brought a lot of ideas to the fore. Patrick Brusnahan writes

Immediately, you can tell there is an excitement in the room with crowds after two years of Covid-related shutdowns and delays. A strong 88,500 attendance, according to the GSMA, backs that up and industry optimism was prevalent.
The big topics were 5G, sustainability, and AI, particularly ChatGPT.

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Emil Haliloviic, research director of telecom technology & software at GlobalData, stated: “How can people build with this new equipment and make everything greener, while also pushing performance?”

Big developments

New shiny products were on display for all to see at MWC 23, but a large number of them had a long way to go before mass deployment.

The GSMA’s Open Gateway initiative, developing an ecosystem-first approach was big news. Many thought this development would aid the monetisation of 5G.
However, 5G took many headlines as many concurred that the industry was no longer at the beginning of the 5G cycle, but somewhere in the middle of it. 5G RAN upgrades were heavily present with a bi focus on performance enhancements, power efficiency and private wireless.

According to Gary Barton, research director for enterprise technology & services at GlobalData: “5G is starting to gain traction.”

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All this looks like a rough time for telcos, but APIs and NaaS could save those companies. The only potential risk of that strategy is security.

The only thing that was lacking at MWC 23 was talk on sustainability, reparability and the like. The new Huawei Glass for example had next to no features with regards to reparability.