Day Three at MWC23

GSMA announced the winners of the 2023 Global Mobile (GLOMO) Awards at MWC 2023, Barcelona on Day Three. Martin Cooper was the first recipient of the GLOMO Lifetime Achievement Award. https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/2023-glomo-award-winners-announced-at-mwc-barcelona-2023/

The torrent of news stories did show any sign of slowing down. The saga of True and dtac’s merger in Thailand finally came to a close, with the operators merging to create True Corporation, Nokia signed a new deal with Ooredoo covering 5G network upgrades in Tunisia and Algeria. Dubai’s du signed a digital transformation deal with Ericsson, and the GSMA provided insight into both Net Zero progress and projected 5G connections.

The Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance (NGMN), at a press briefing highlighted its efforts across various trends and issues in the telco industry, including work towards fulfilling its vision for 6G. The business and service potential of 5G, which is now being accused of failing to live up to its promises, is still the main focus of the industry in Barcelona this year, but that hasn’t stopped some of the major operators and industry associations highlighting their work on, and developments associated with, 6G.

Michael Irizarry, EVP and CTO of engineering and information technology at UScellular, also a member of NGMN’s board of directors, admitted that the industry does not yet know what 6G is, how much it’s going to cost and what problems it will be able to solve. Despite this, he expressed belief there is a need for the concept to be explored by organisations such as the NGMN.

It wasn’t only the NGMN highlighting 6G developments this week. NTT, along with its mobile business NTT Docomo, beefed up its partner portfolio to a quintet of major vendors to experiment with the next-generation technology. Building on R&D collaborations with Fujitsu, NEC and Nokia, the Japanese telco will now also collaborate with Ericsson and Keysight Technologies to conduct 6G trials.

The GSMA’s annual Mobile Net Zero report, released during MWC 2023, reveals that mobile operators are making tangible gains in the drive towards net zero, with nearly a quarter of the industry’s electricity globally now being purchased from renewable sources. This, says the GSMA, represents a meaningful uplift from 14% in 2020 and 18% in 2021.

The report, published annually by the GSMA to track the mobile industry’s progress towards net zero, also demonstrates how operators are working to improve energy efficiency across their footprint, investing in 5G – which enables higher bandwidths with lower power usage per bit delivered – retiring power-hungry legacy networks and investing in electric vehicle fleets.

The 5G New Calling Industry Development Forum was held. This forum brought together global leading operators, standards organizations, device suppliers, terminal vendors, and industry partners to discuss the development direction, prospect, and ecosystem of New Calling, and jointly promote the prosperity of the New Calling industry.

Adrian Scrase, CTO of ETSI and Head of the 3GPP Mobile Competence Centre, mentioned in his speech that New Calling is the addition of IMS Data Channel to the voice and video channels, offering richer, interactive call experiences. In 2020, 3GPP defined IMS Data Channel for the first time. In 3GPP R18, the New Calling (NG-RTC) network architecture will be improved by enriching functions. He hoped that more industry partners contribute to the development of New Calling standards.

Richard Cockle, Head of GSMA Foundry, said that the GSMA Foundry project has played an active role in consolidating industry consensus and building a unified global ecosystem for New Calling. He called on more partners to participate in the Foundry Phase 2 project and jointly spur the development of the New Calling industry.

Ericsson was in the spotlight but not for all the right reasons. The vendor raised questions about the status of its ongoing investigation by the US Department of Justice into alleged corrupt business practices in Iraq by announcing that its chief compliance officer, Laurie Waddy, is leaving the company and is being replaced on a temporary basis by Jan Sprafke, who is currently the vendor’s head of compliance for Europe and Latin America. Ericsson announced late last year that it had agreed with the Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission to extend by one year the term of the company’s Independent Compliance Monitor to June 2024, and then noted in early January this year that it had set aside $220m to cover the fines it is expecting from the Department of Justice for alleged breaches of its 2019 deferred prosecution agreement. The scandal swirling around the company’s historical business practices in Iraq just won’t go away, it seems.

NEC affirmed its focus on 5G and its belief that open RAN is the technology to power it – in emerging markets as well as developed ones. David Cohen, NEC’s Head of 5G Marketing, said that the firm was focused on delivering 5G to Tier 1 operators, and that it considers open RAN the sole means of doing so. Cohen argued that the proof of concept is there, with NEC having been selected by several major players in more developed markets – including NTT and Rakuten in Japan – to deliver an end-to-end 5G solution that relies on open RAN. This grounding in developed markets allows the technology to mature and thereby improve – operators may wish to buy part of the solution, such as network consultancy or optimisation software.

CT Bureau