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The Mobile World Congress (MWC) in 2018 came with the slogan of “Creating a Better Future”. The vision is that new technologies, products and services can bring a better future for everyone. In the keynote speech at the conference, “Creating a Better Service Provider”, the organizer GSMA as well as operators such as NTT DoCoMo, China Mobile, Telia, Telefonica and Vodafone all indicated that this better future will be built on 5G and IoT.

For instance, NTT DoCoMo is planning to create a positive IoT experience by connecting 5G and a plethora of sensors for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. Connected cars will serve as the transportation vehicles in the Olympic Village, promising a fabulous experience for athletes and the audience. VR/AR and wearables will be the new way of training and simulation for sportsmen and sportswomen.

The 2018 MWC was centered on 5G, mobile devices, services & content, AI and IoT. The scope goes beyond the communications industry. It extends to factories, hospitals, retailers and transportation providers. The supply chain ecosystem will establish cross-disciplinary collaborations to create new markets for mobile communication. In sum, the multi-disciplinary integration of 5G, AI, IoT, smart devices and services/content showcased at the 2018 MWC is expected to mitigate the slow-down of the growth trajectory and alleviate the burden of increasing capex/opex for mobile operators. Network virtualization and open architectures should be able to lower network operating costs.  

Theme 1 > Miniature Innovations on Mobile Devices

5G and AI have become the new bright spots in the mobile phone market. Dual cameras, full screens, fingerprint and facial recognition, wireless charging and biometrics have become standard features of flagship models. 5G and AI are the new shining spots on mobile phones this year. The 5G standards are expected to complete the second stage of formulation in June 2018, and chipmakers are planning to launch products in early 2019. This means 5G smartphones will be in the marketplace in 2019. In the meantime, many cellular phones are being equipped with AI accelerators, currently for photo-taking, user experience analytics and observing the surroundings. This allows mobile phones to provide personalized services according to users’ needs. In sum, 5G and AI are expected to create demand growth.

Theme 2 > 5G Accelerates Industry Transformation

5G is about more than mobile broadband services. It will be working more closely with Smart City, transportation, medicare and heavy industries. The 5G networks are open and based on virtualization (i.e. the cloud). It will work in conjunction with AI and edge computing for the construction of automated networks . International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and governments around the world are speeding up the release of spectrums and licenses. The Sub-6GHz spectrum, such as 3.5GHz, has been opened in many countries. High-frequency bandwidth, e.g. 28GHz, 60GHz, and 77/79GHz will also be used to enable 5G services. The arrival of 5G will accelerate collaboration and the transformation of new applications and new technologies on new spectrums, and create a smarter generation of mobile communication networks. 

Theme 3> IoT in Combination with New Technologies

The IoT applications at the 2018 MWC were centered on smart agriculture, water and electricity meter monitoring, bridge monitoring, emergency responses, smart lighting, and smart keys. Many emerging technologies such as AI, NB-IoT and edge computing are enabling IoT services. Device connectivity, platform analytics, applications and services are all empowered by AI solutions, marking the beginning of the AIoT era. With the cooperation from upper stream to downstream of the industry, IoT applications and services will be operating in a more reliable and safer environment with lower latency. The hardware costs will be reduced and the user experience will be optimized.

Theme 4 > AR Enables New Audio/Video Experience

The penetration of AR is expected to grow on smart handheld devices. Ericsson forecasts that 73% of mobile data traffic in 2023 will come from audio/video content. AR/VR applications will rapidly increase data volumes. IDC predicts that the AR/VR market will reach $215bn in 2021, growing nearly 19x from $11.4bn in 2017.

Theme 5 > AI Extended to New Applications

AI has been used predominately on cell phones, smart speakers and robots, on functions such as voice-centric user interface, face ID and photo image recognition. Gartner estimates that approximately 10% of smartphones were embedded with AI in 2017. This percentage will rise to 80% by 2022. The 2018 MWC has expanded to include AR/VR, 5G, edge computing, IoT and OTT (over-the-top) media services. For instance, the combination of 5G and AI will minimize the resource allocations required based on network parameters. The integration of media services and AI can accurately recommend to users their preferred movies and advertisements, in order to enhance the stickiness of users.