- Will it be hot? GSMA is expecting higher attendance than in years past
- Has the industry hit 5G exhaustion yet? Maybe
- AI is going to be unavoidable — even when it comes to the coffee
The Fierce Network editorial team, including our FNTV crew, is heading to Mobile World Congress 2025 in just a few days, using all forms of transportation – planes, trains and automobiles. But what do we expect to find when we get there?
Check out our list below and see if we were right as our live coverage rolls in right here starting on March 3.
Are we sick of 5G yet?
For what feels like the 100th year in a row, we expect to be bombarded with pronouncements proclaiming 5G to be “transformative” and “game changing.” But unless operators are secretly planning to deploy standalone 5G – the flavor needed for 5G to fulfill the aforementioned prophecy – en masse, we expect there to be little to back up those statements.
We’d also bet money they plan to plug the holes in their 5G stories with a sprinkling of private networks (look ma, revenues!) and 6G (ooooh, shiny) announcements. Don’t worry, though, we’ll be on the ground asking the tough questions side-stepped in their press releases.
Unavoidable AI
If you thought you could avoid it at a mobile show, think again. Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to play a starring role at MWC. We fully expect to hear about how telcos are using AI to improve their raft of existing customer-facing services (like security, Wifi, etc.) as well as conjure up new ones (GPU-as-a-Service, anyone?). We would also be shocked if we didn’t hear more about how AI is both enabling internal process improvements and pushing us ever-closer to the mythical fully autonomous network.
And on a related note...
AI in the RAN
Last year, some were surprised by the formation of the AI-RAN Alliance, led by SoftBank and Nvidia and including Arm, DeepSig, AWS, Ericsson, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, T-Mobile USA, and Northeastern University. This year, we think we’ll hear a lot more from the alliance and its members about what they’re actually doing with AI and the radio access network (RAN) beyond the press releases and marketing hype we saw last year.
Booths in lock down
We may have left the lockdowns of 2020 behind but apparently, some vendors haven’t. It used to be that you could waltz across the MWC show floor, touring all the nifty displays at your leisure. But some companies have chosen to keep their wares behind lock and key – or at least behind a check-in desk that you can’t get past without an appointment. Boo. We would very much like for this trend to fade away into obscurity.
Open RAN
Go figure that despite some closed booths, openness will likely be a key theme at MWC 2024. We fully expect to hear more about how this ecosystem is expanding and evolving, and whether and how geopolitical moves may influence its development.
Robot dogs
Because we’re all about AI that’s actually helpful to people, we’re probably going to see a bunch of little AI-equipped robotic dogs roaming the show floor and detecting all the people who are looking down at their smartphones, tapping them on the shoulder and reminding them “hey, watch where you’re going!” But they’ll do it nicely so as not to tick anybody off and we’ll all get to our destinations without running into one another, ‘k?!
Inescapable barista robot
You can run, but you can’t hide...from the coffee robot that is. We ran into this little dude at MWC last year and he proceeded to follow us in one shape or another to various shows throughout the year, including Google Cloud Next. What form will the robot barista take on this year? And will it collapse in exhaustion on Thursday afternoon after a frenzied week pumping caffeine into show goers? Stay tuned.
The smell of electricity
Nothing says Mobile World Congress like the smell of electricity, especially in the morning.
Jamón!
Mmmm. Jamón. Even better with some Manchego cheese and pimientos de Padron. We love jamón until Wednesday when our enthusiasm wanes. But still, jamón! Just don’t try to bring it home – or else you’ll be handing your local customs officer a $200 lunch plate. Ask us how we know.
More AI!
Are you sensing the theme yet? AI is the topic du jour at Mobile World Congress; nearly every vendor and operator wants to meet with us to discuss their AI strategy and offerings. But the pitches are samey-samey: Did we know that AI is transforming the telco industry? (Really?! We hadn't heard!)
The AI buzz reminds us of the 90s dotcom boom. Every company wants to get in on the new hot thing, whether it's a good fit or not. Plenty of hype, much of it ridiculous. But, like the dotcom boom, the cotton-candy hype castle is built on a solid foundation, because AI (like the Internet in the 90s) really is transforming telcos — and virtually every other businesses too. At the show we'll be looking for concrete examples of how AI is delivering business value.
We're past the time of pilot projects and proofs-of-concept. We need to start seeing how telcos and vendors are transforming their business using AI and achieving quantifiable results. We are also looking for examples of synergies between AI and the network — both AI for the network (using AI to optimize the network and achieve the goal of the fully autonomous, driverless operations) and the network for AI (optimizing the network to deliver on AI's unique data requirements).
The SK Telecom booth helicopter
Will it be back? Will the line be just as long as last year, and the year before? Place your bets. We say all signs point to yes but, admittedly, we are hoping for a booth refresh.
Private networks and, you guessed it, even more AI
We are expecting to see vendors like Ericsson and Nokia, and possibly operators like T-Mobile, talk up the use of AI in private networks and other digital industrialization features. From edge AI to private on-prem large language models (LLMs) all improving operational efficiency, private AI will be the talk of the town in Barca. Don’t expect that to mean you’ll see AI-powered private networks offered up anytime soon because remember it took four years before the hype cycle caught up with actual private 5G network deployments! Why should private AI be any different?
'Accidental Tourist' mode activated
Barcelona is one of the world's great cities, in one of the most wonderful regions of the world, and Fierce Network Research's Mitch Wagner said he hasn't been there in six years. But alas, most of us won't get to see any of it outside of hotel and taxi windows.
Meanwhile, Fierce Network's Dan Jones said that as the ex-pat veggie weirdo of the group he's looking forward to revisiting Haldi restaurant in Barcelona, to get his mirchi (red chili) fix. If he has have any downtime (ha! ha!), he'll be haunting one of the several large flea markets in Barcelona.
Y'all remember the movie The Accidental Tourist? It starred William Hurt as a man who writes guides for American business travelers on how they can completely avoid experiencing travel. That's pretty much all of us on this trip.
We plan to spend our flights home — another 15 hours! — reviewing travel websites and making up lies to tell our friends and family about what we saw and did in and around one of the most beautiful metropolises on the planet.
FNTV
Oh yeah, remember when we mentioned this up top? We’re amping up our video coverage at the show this year and have something very special up our sleeve. You’ll have to wait and see but you’ll be able to catch all the on-camera action right here.
Final prediction: hot or not?
Hot for sure.
See y'all at the show and watch for our coverage at Fierce Network.
Monica Alleven, Dan Jones and Mitch Wagner all contributed to this article.