MWC Las Vegas Trend Watch – 5 things to watch out for

With MWC Las Vegas just around the corner, our Lead Analyst, Network Strategy at GSMA Intelligence, James Joiner, shares his predictions on the topics and issues that will be trending at the show.

Here are our top five predictions for MWC Las Vegas 2023:

Enterprise 5G takes the spotlight: After completing the initial stage of their 5G rollouts, North American operators are beginning to direct more attention towards exploring enterprise 5G use cases. Expect to see operator efforts in 5G standalone (5G SA) and private 5G – two key enablers for enterprise 5G success – garner plenty of attention in the opening keynote. Accelerating 5G SA rollouts will be crucial to unlocking 5G’s potential within key sectors like automotive, which require faster and more responsive networks for advanced features such as assisted driving and immersive in-car entertainment experiences. On the private 5G front, I expect to see new partnerships announced as companies look to offer a full set of private wireless capabilities and develop new channels to market.

Open RAN remains a long-term play: Open RAN deployments have been limited in North America so far. I expect it to remain that way over the next few years, as most operators limit their Open RAN activity to small-scale tests and trials. Dish Network will be the exception. Unencumbered by legacy infrastructure, it has already embarked on a large-scale rollout of open RAN as part of its greenfield deployment. As the number of users on its network continues to grow, the operator will serve as an important test case for Open RAN. I look forward to hearing more about the possibilities and pitfalls of deploying open and cloud-based networks from Dish and its network partners in The Three ‘S’s of open RAN session. In particular, I hope to learn more about the new services and business models unlocked by this new way of building mobile networks.

Telco-satellite partnerships set for take-off: Over the past year, we’ve witnessed a surge in partnerships between mobile operators and satellite providers. North American operators have been at the front and centre of this trend (see: T-Mobile and SpaceX, AT&T and AST SpaceMobile, Rogers and Lynk Global). With testing and technical integration underway, customers should start seeing the fruits of these collaborations in 2024. Expect to hear plenty more about the business models and tech advances driving these collaborations at the Satellite and NTN Summit at MWC Las Vegas.

Sustainability becomes the norm: As Apple’s iPhone 15 announcement demonstrated, sustainability is no longer an afterthought in mobile phone production. In this new series, each device features a USB-C charging port, reflecting demands to be more eco-friendly. More and more OEMs are crafting eco-friendly devices using recycled materials to reduce the number of devices and components that end up as waste. Mobile operators are also embracing sustainability in a big way. It’s therefore no surprise that MWC Las Vegas will host a Sustainability Summit, which will explore the big shift taking place in the priorities of telecoms network buyers. Energy-efficient hardware is now table stakes for any vendor looking to sell to a mobile operator. What’s more, operators are also looking to new network architectures and service models to drive further efficiency gains.

Generative AI gets real: AI has been a part of mobile operator strategies for some time, but the emergence of generative AI has pushed the envelope on AI capabilities and thrust AI technology into boardroom conversations globally. AT&T has been among the busiest mobile operators in this area, collaborating with Microsoft and OpenAI to create Ask AT&T, a ChatGPT-like tool enhancing coding and translation. It was also among the first operators to establish a partnership with Nvidia on generative AI. The Age of AI conference track at MWC Las Vegas should shed some light on which generative AI use cases hold the most value and how best operators can leverage them.

CT Bureau