MWC21 Barcelona brings industry back to business

IN THIS ISSUE

O F F I C I A L N E W S P A P E R O F M W C 2 1 B A R C E L O N A

T echnology start-ups and entrepreneurs are being placed at the heart of MWC21

Barcelona, with the seventh edition of the GSMA’s Four Years From Now (4YFN) event brought into the main Fira Gran Via venue for the first time in its history.

The event offers a glimpse of how theory is being put into practice, with more than 380 businesses set to showcase products and systems covering key areas including digital

healthcare and IoT in the exhibition, which complements a comprehensive conference agenda with streams focusing on connectivity and the investment sector.

4YFN adds even more international flavour to the main MWC21 event, with start-ups from nations including South Korea, Egypt, Japan, Pakistan and the US joining attendees from across Europe.

Pere Duran, 4YFN director, explained the ability to meet in-person is a key element of the event, bringing start-ups together with investors and other large technology companies to launch new ventures.

He noted bringing the event into

the broader MWC21 Barcelona arena would be another key boost for such efforts, simplifying access to the operators and technology companies attending the flagship event.

FORUM More than 150 international speakers are lined up for the 4YFN conference programme, including Sir Ronald Cohen, chair of the Global Steering Group for Impact Investment and a leading light in driving European investments focused on delivering environmental and societal benefits in addition to financial rewards.

MWC21 Barcelona welcomes 4YFN into main halls

Rock legend Jon Bon Jovi is to perform at Cloud City during MWC21 Barcelona, with

event attendees encouraged to

complete a variety of challenges at the public cloud showcase in Hall 2 to earn their way into the gig. Cont. on P2 f

Cloud City challenges attendees to lay their hands on Bon Jovi tickets

Fira Gran Via will look different this year, as thousands of the mobile industry’s top

executives return to MWC21 Barcelona to network and learn.

The weather will be warmer than in the event’s usual February slot and the halls won’t be as packed as usual, but they will be far from empty. For GSMA CMO Stephanie Lynch-Habib (pictured), the glass is definitely half full.

“We’re delighted to be back to Barcelona, back to business and

back together,” said Lynch-Habib. “We are very grateful for all the exhibitors, no matter what path they chose this year.”

Attendees are eager to convene in person, Lynch-Habib said, and they can expect to do so safely thanks to the GSMA’s careful planning. “The team spent months designing a multi-layer health and safety plan, and it’s called the Connected Community,” she explained.

All badges will be digital, and each badge will remain active only

so long as its holder has a verified, uploaded negative Covid-19 (coronavirus) test result which is less than 72 hours old. Rapid antigen tests will be available in Hall 1, and Lynch-Habib said the medical team will scale with the event to ensure testing will be quick. Cont. on P2 f

MWC21 Barcelona brings industry back to business

MWC21 KEYNOTE PREVIEW WE HIGHLIGHT ALL THE SPEAKERS ACROSS FIVE KEYNOTE SESSIONS PAGE 4

TELCODR SETS SKY-HIGH MWC21 AMBITIONS DANIELLE ROYSTON TELLS US WHY SHE’S SO EXCITED BY THE CLOUD CITY PROJECT IN HALL 2 PAGE 18

GLOMOS SET TO RECOGNISE MOBILE’S CRUCIAL YEAR CHAIR OF JUDGES SHAUN COLLINS PREVIEWS THIS WEEK’S BIG ANNOUNCEMENT PAGE 21

BROUGHT TO YOU BY:

MWC21 BARCELONA PREVIEW | www.mwcbarcelona.com PAGE 1

OFFICIAL SHOW PREVIEW

Cont. on P2 f

MWC21 PREVIEW 1.qxp_DAY1 21/06/2021 13:24

NEWS

MWC21 BARCELONA PREVIEW | www.mwcbarcelona.comPAGE 2

MANAGING EDITOR: Justin Springham

CONTRIBUTORS: Kavit Majithia Michael Carroll Chris Donkin Yanitsa Boyadzhieva Peter Jarich Tim Hatt Dennisa Nichiforov-Chuang Martha DeGrasse ALL ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES TO: [email protected]

PUBLISHER: Rick Costello

PRODUCTION MANAGER: Samantha Burke

ART DIRECTION & PRODUCTION: Russell Smith, IntuitiveDesign UK Ltd., 13 North St, Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Maldon, Essex CM9 8TF, UK, email: [email protected]

PRINTED BY: Servicios Gráficas Giesa, Barcelona

Whilst care has been taken to ensure that the data in this publication is accurate, the publisher cannot accept and hereby disclaims any liability to any party to loss or damage caused by errors or omissions resulting from negligence, accident or any other cause. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher.

A GSMA Publication All content © GSMA Ltd. 2007-2021. All rights reserved.

In an effort to minimise the environmental impact of our event, the GSMA promotes the usage of recycled materials and waste reduction wherever possible. Building on this commitment, we are now pursuing official Carbon Neutral certification of Mobile World Congress under the international standard PAS 2060.

Among the other notable names joining Cohen on the conference agenda are Iker Marcaide, CEO and founder of impact investment-focused Zubi Labs; Ana Maiques, CEO and founder of healthcare company Neuroelectronics; early-stage investment business Moonfire Ventures chief Mattias Ljungman; and Oscar Hoglund, CEO of music technology company Epidemic Sound.

Alongside focusing on social impact and sustainability, conference speakers will also discuss investment and corporate venturing, technology horizons and creative minds: you can find more details on the programme online at www.4yfn.com.

Duran noted interest in attending 4YFN in person remains just as high as in previous years, but with some nations continuing to impose travel restrictions organisers plan to stream all sessions from the main stage of the conference online.

AWARDS Not everything can be handled online, of course, with a programme of networking events and investor pitches for the regular 4YFN Impact Awards set to be handled on site.

A panel of experts have shortlisted five digital start-ups to vie for glory in the 4YFN Impact Awards, based on their contributions towards achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations.

The companies selected operate in a range of sectors spanning telehealth; cloud-based drug research; on-demand public transport; enhancing the mobility of the visually impaired; and broadening financial inclusion.

In addition to a high-profile interview with Mobile World Live TV which will be broadcast on-site, the winner will also be invited to participate in the GLOMOs Award Ceremony and receive exhibition space at 4YFN Barcelona 2022.

j MWC21 Barcelona welcomes 4YFN into main halls Cont. from P1

j MWC21 Barcelona brings industry back to business Cont. from P1

Once inside, attendees will find a completely touchless environment, including individually wrapped food and Plexiglas separators in the gardens so they can more safely enjoy a meal or coffee together.

The GSMA launched an innovative programme called Give To and Get Back, whereby Spanish residents working in one of 11 key industries can purchase an MWC21 Barcelona Discovery Pass for €21. If 30,000 attendees take advantage of this opportunity, the industry association will donate €300,000 to local Covid-19 relief funds. Lynch-Habib said the initiative has attracted “exactly who we wanted” in terms of industry representation.

Lynch-Habib said the interest from exhibitors is palpable and growing by the day. She said the popular 4YFN Programme, which focuses on start-ups, already has 380 exhibitors committed.

A number of larger companies which decided not to exhibit will instead send a contingent of top executives. “The right people will still be there,” Lynch-Habib said, adding. “Barcelona remains the place where business gets done.”

j Cloud City challenges attendees to lay their hands on Bon Jovi tickets Cont. from P1

Bon Jovi is set to perform on Tuesday 29 June from 5.30pm to 7pm local time. The US star is one of three artists confirmed to appear, with two-time Latin Grammy winner Rosario Flores taking the stage on Monday 28 June and world-renowned visual DJ AFISHAL rounding out the

three-night line-up with a performance on Wednesday 30 June, both in the same timeslots.

“After a year and a half of being apart, I wanted to bring a little bit of Austin, Texas, the live music capital of the world, to Barcelona,” Danielle Royston, CEO of TelcoDR, the company behind Cloud City, explained.

“From our immersive experiences, to hands-on demos of some of the hottest telco software

built on the public cloud, to incredible talks from industry thought leaders, to the best coffee around, Cloud City promises to be the epicentre of public cloud at MWC and I can’t wait to see everyone.”

Attendance to the shows is limited: upon entering Cloud City MWC attendees can scan a QR code to download and play Cloud City Quest, which will present them with a variety of challenges to gain entry to Cloud City Unplugged.

The highest-scoring players will have the opportunity to attend an exclusive after party meet-and-greet with the entertainers. TelcoDR is also offering a chance to win more than $100,000-worth of prizes.

And for remote attendees, the company is setting up a livestream. Virtual attendees can register at telcodr-cloudcityquest.com. After submitting details, players will receive a text with a unique link to begin playing Cloud City Quest.

Research by industry association GSMA found 5G is now available in every

region of the world, following launches in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa in 2020.

The GSMA Global Mobile Economy 2021 report, set to be published on the opening day of MWC21 Barcelona, revealed the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic had little impact on the momentum of 5G deployments and in some cases had simplified rollouts by operators, as governments and service providers moved swiftly to boost capacity at a time of increased demand.

By end-2025, 5G is forecast to account for just over 20 per cent of total mobile connections, with more than two in five people around the world living within reach of a compatible network.

Among the other findings are continued headroom for 4G growth, and details on the significant contribution the mobile sector makes to the global economy, as the industry continues to lead in tackling social issues.

The report will be available for download at www.gsma.com/mobileeconomy/ from 28 June.

GSMA Global Mobile Economy 2021 report flags 5G success


INFINEON TECHNOLOGIES | IoT

Security, connectivity among the keys to unlocking potential of IoT

BY: Dr. Michael Schinke, Vice President Marketing Communications, Infineon Technologies

We are rapidly moving towards a world where almost all things will be connected. Gartner predicts

each person on the planet will have three connected devices on average by the end of 20211 and, as we all know, we are just starting out on this digitalisation journey.

Not surprisingly, Covid-19 (coronavirus) has had a massive impact on the pace of change, shifting customer interaction to the digital space and converting analogue products and services into digital offerings. The pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital technologies worldwide by several years and many of these changes could be here for the long haul. According to a McKinsey study2 in October 2020, companies have accelerated the digitisation of their customer and supply-chain interactions by three- to four-years, and the share of digital or digitally-enabled products in their portfolios by as much as seven years.

FROM VISION TO TIPPING POINT Despite this acceleration, we have not yet reached the digital tipping point. But today’s new way of thinking has opened the door for industries and companies to unlock the full potential of digital transformation, with the IoT in particular promising to add value to productivity, user convenience and even society as a whole. The question is, what will push the IoT from vision to tipping point? The answer lies in the magic triangle of high-performance microelectronics, the latest analytical software, and 5G. All of which are converging to enable contextual awareness, reliable wireless connectivity and robust security.

ELECTRONICS AS THE KEY ENABLER OF THE IOT Equipped with powerful electronics, everyday things such as wearables, cars and industrial machines are becoming smart and connected, and can thus interact with their environment.

All of these devices can autonomously process information, make decisions and set chains of action in motion. Smart home and smart building technologies, for example, not only increase convenience and quality of life. They also support energy efficiency, warn about pending failures, and increase safety and security. Smart home robotics can support residential care for older people, helping to meet the growing wish for independent living among the elderly. Smart glasses project contextual information into the wearer’s field of vision; speakers can be voice-operated; and key fobs transmit their location. Smaller, more energy-efficient and more powerful than ever, wearables are bringing new levels of convenience to everyday activities like cashless payments, fitness tracking and messaging. And intelligent apps access numerous data sources to deliver valuable, situational information and tips to users. The list is endless.

RELIABLE CONNECTIVITY As these examples show, the puzzle pieces are starting to come together to make the IoT work. The technologies and microelectronic components needed for the IoT are increasingly sophisticated and interoperate more and more seamlessly, partly thanks to standardisation.

Connectivity may be the heartbeat of the IoT, but it’s not enough. It also has to be reliable. In this world of connected experiences, excellent reception quality and fast, stable connections are a must, at all times and places. To enable seamless connectivity, devices must support a growing number of frequency bands and features in a constrained size, possibly compromising antenna performance. Antenna tuning has the potential to resolve this challenge, boosting antenna efficiency for the highest data rates, excellent signal

quality and longer battery lives. Combined with 5G technology, which promises ultra-fast and reliable wireless communications in a gigabit-connected society, antenna tuning may be the key to reliable connectivity.

Another key factor in the connectivity equation is learning software. Not only can advanced analytics improve today’s connectivity products, it can also empower customers with real-time insights for better decision-making and enhanced end customer experiences. Companies such as Infineon Technologies that move beyond the delivery of individual semiconductor components to become true IoT companies, capable of blending the full IoT functional spectrum with Software-as-a-Service, are ideally positioned to meet today’s reliable connectivity needs.

CONTEXTUAL AWARENESS Contextual awareness is at the very heart of the new effortless, interconnected, intuitive IoT experience. Thanks to modern sensor technologies such as Infineon’s XENSIV™ family, electronic systems can record various data streams enabling things to see, hear, feel, understand, and even smell their surroundings. Microcontrollers process this data and generate control signals. Actuators convert the control signals into actions. Networking the systems and intelligently linking data via the cloud creates application capabilities that far exceed existing standalone solutions. Which is paving the way for everything from increasingly intelligent infrastructure management in smart cities through interactive robots in smart factories to super-fast media streaming on demand in the home.

ROBUST SECURITY To make the IoT work, robust security is key. Particularly as companies expand the share of digitally-enabled products in their portfolios, they often find that the know-how required for IoT security reaches beyond their conventional core competencies. Yet they urgently need

robust security solutions capable of protecting data transmission and ensuring the integrity of the devices and networks involved. The same McKinsey study indicated that the pandemic-related need to work and interact with customers remotely required investments in data security and an accelerated migration to the cloud. Most importantly, investments in data security and AI are the changes respondents most often identified as helping to position organisations better than they were before the crisis. But companies don’t need to go it alone. The market is increasingly offering easy-to-integrate security products and solutions such as Infineon’s OPTIGA™ family based on established standards for rapid deployment and interoperability. This enables companies to accelerate the development and delivery of IoT products and service models without having to invest in dedicated security know-how. And to stay ahead of the security curve, companies need to start building post quantum cryptography into their next-generation products today, so that devices and machines with long service lives, in particular, remain safe in the future.

Digitalisation is one of the defining trends of our time, transforming all areas of life and potentially providing innovative answers to the key challenges facing society, including climate change and population growth.

“Today’s new way of thinking has opened the door for industries and companies to unlock the full potential of digital transformation, with the IoT in particular promising to add value to productivity, user convenience and even society as a whole.”


1 https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-11-07-gartner-identifies-top-10-strategic-iot-technologies-and-trends 2 How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point—and transformed business forever, October 5, 2020 | Survey, McKinsey


FEATURE | A GUIDE TO MWC’S KEYNOTES

As always, Barcelona’s impressive keynote line-up offers key insights from some of the mobile industry’s biggest names, providing a complete overview of the status of the industry today and an expert take on future technologies. Thanks to MWC21’s hybrid format, with all of the keynotes broadcast live on mobileworldlive.com, even those unable to be in the Fira will be able to access the event’s headline sessions.

Although the complete line-up is yet to be fully revealed at the time of writing, speakers already confirmed include some of the biggest names in mobile and are sure to be a huge draw for attendees both virtual and in person.

DAY 1

KEYNOTE 1: OUR CONNECTED WORLD Under the title Our Connected World (Monday 9.30am), the session will focus on connectivity as a driver of economic recovery as the world moves beyond the pandemic. As always at MWC, operator representation is strong, with Orange CEO Stephane Richard joining Vodafone Group boss Nick Read, Telefonica CEO Jose Maria Alvarez-Pallete Lopez, China Mobile chairman Yang Jie, Deutsche Telekom CEO Timotheus Hoettges and GSMA director Mats Granryd on the main stage for the opening keynote.

KEYNOTE 2: FUTURE IS DIGITAL Keynote 2: Future is Digital (Monday 11.45am) covers how digital technology is driving a range of sectors and features big names from across telecoms and allied industries. Speakers at the session are Verizon chief Hans Vestberg, inbound Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon, Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky, AWS chief Adam Selipsky, Verizon CSO Rima Qureshi and NHS Digital CEO Sarah Wilkinson. All information correct as of June 10, 2021

KEYNOTE 3: NETWORKS FOR CHANGE The event’s third keynote session Networks for Change (Monday 5pm) will be held virtually and showcases the social good which can be brought about by intelligent connectivity. It will also look at how mobile can remain a driver for future innovation.

The session features Accenture CEO Julie Sweet, ZTE president Xu Ziyang, IBM chief Arvind Krishna, The Valuable 500 founder Caroline Casey, Revolut founder Nik Storonsky and Starling Bank CEO Anne Boden.

DAY 2

KEYNOTE 1: CONNECTED IMPACT Day two’s keynote takes inspiration from the overriding MWC21 theme of Connected Impact (Tuesday 9.30am) and features representatives from some of the industry’s great disruptors to gaze into what the future may bring for mobile.

Speakers include Reliance Jio President Mathew Oommen, Huawei carrier business group president Ryan Ding, TelcoDR CEO Danielle Royston, and ViacomCBS Networks International CEO Raffaele Annecchino.

DAY 3

KEYNOTE 1: NEXTECH Wednesday’s keynote Nextech (Wednesday 9.30am) covers some of the fantastic futuristic use cases of mobile connectivity and builds on MWC’s record of showcasing and discussing advanced medical applications.

Experts contributing to the session include Doctor Antonio de Lacy, chief of gastrointestinal surgery department at hospital clinic Barcelona, AIS Channel CEO Rod Menchaca, Neuroelectrics CEO Ana Maiques and Zina Jarrahi Cinker, director general of AMPT.

Of course, the keynote roster is only part of MWC21’s varied content programme which also includes workshops, panels, fireside chats and conference sessions on specific areas providing both high level thought leadership and deep technical discussion.

Discover the future of mobile with MWC21 keynotes


Mats Granryd Director General,

GSMA

Stéphane Richard Chairman & CEO,

Orange Group

Ana Maiques CEO & Founder, Neuroelectrics

Adam Selipsky CEO, AWS

Zina Jarrahi Cinker Director General,

AMPT

Hans Vestberg Chairman & CEO,

Verizon

Ryan Ding Executive Director,

President of Carrier BG, Huawei

Danielle Royston CEO & Founder,

TelcoDR

Mathew Oommen President, Reliance Jio

Nick Read CEO, Vodafone

Eugene Kaspersky CEO,

Kaspersky

Rod Menchaca CEO, AIS


FEATURE | HEALTH & SAFETY

Hands-free, face and space at MWC21

Ken Li, Senior Solutions Manager – New Solution, Comba Telecom

Can you explain how ScanViS’ touchless access control feature will ensure a healthy and hygienic experience for attendees at MWC21? Ken Li: ScanViS GateGuard PRO access control devices leverage best-in-class facial recognition technology to verify the face ID of the registered attendees to walk across the venue of MWC21, without touching any machines to complete the access control process. Registered attendees simply walk through the BREEZ access control area where the GateGuard PRO access control devices will verify their face ID and authorise entry. The whole verification process is completed by the ScanViS devices and are totally touch-free to avoid unnecessary physical contacts between human and machines, which significantly mitigates the risk of cross infection. How important are touchless features in creating a safe environment with in-person events making a comeback? Touchless features is a preventive step to control cross infection at in-person events. Such features adopt biometric technology such as facial recognition using face as an access key to enter the event venues. Physical contacts between human and human, human and machines in the access control process can be eliminated to secure a safe environment for public events.

How has Comba-Telecom adapted its solutions in light of the Covid-19 pandemic? Comba Telecom’s smart solution brand – ScanViS GateGuard series - adopts safe and reliable facial recognition technology to perform access control functions by face ID. This product helps enterprises and organisations ensure only registered users are authorised entry to the building or venue.

What are some of the challenges of operating such solutions in the middle of a health crisis and how have you overcome them? It may not be easy for the public or building/venue to fully accept the adoption of the new solutions when a health crisis hits suddenly. Since the pandemic began, ScanViS has been communicating to the public and communities of the importance of using touchless features for venue access, and explaining the benefits of such solutions through online platforms. Demonstration videos to show easy installation and operation of the solutions also help increase the acceptance level and ensures wider adoption in the post-pandemic era.

Another challenge is privacy issues when using facial recognition as a touchless feature in these solutions. ScanViS understands the importance of data security, therefore all collected data will be kept only by the

customer with high standard encryption. With in-person events, consent will be required from attendees to use the face ID in the event access control system.

What are the advantages of using face verification tools as more people begin to gather in public places? Fast. Accurate. Convenient. Efficient.

Face verification tools are able to process a large volume of face data in public places with high traffic of people. It takes less than 0.3 seconds to verify the registered visitor’s face. Some devices are able to verify multiple faces with less than 1 second. This can significantly shorten queuing time in the access control area and facilitate crowd management with enhanced security.

As MWC21 prepares to make a comeback following the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, implementing healthy, hygienic measures has never been so important. Here, Ken Li, Senior Solutions Manager – New Solution, Comba Telecom, outlines how touchless and face-ID technology can play a crucial role in creating a safe environment for attendees.


“Face verification tools are able to process a large volume of face data in public places with high traffic of people. It takes less than 0.3 seconds to verify the registered visitor’s face.”


Hall 2 – it’s the big one at the end!(Really, it’s huge, you can’t miss it)


5G | RIBBON COMMUNICATIONS


Traffic engineering tipped to fuel multi-service networks

BY: Irit Touitou, EVP of IP Optical Networking R&D, Ribbon

While 5G deployments taking place across the world began with enhanced mobile broadband in

urban areas using existing mobile backhaul networks in non-standalone architectures, we are now entering the next phase as the number of 5G capable devices rapidly ramp. Operators must provide additional capacity in urban areas while extending 5G enhanced mobile broadband rollouts to rural areas. Achieving this will require densifying their networks, offering higher capacity to an increased number of radio locations, and evolving from the traditional 4G architectures to highly distributed C-RAN architectures as needed. Simultaneously, operators are investigating new revenue-generating services based on mass IoT connectivity (mMTC) and guaranteed network performance (URLLC), two early examples of these being private networks for enterprises and online mobile gaming. These services require the network to provide performance-level guarantees for latency, availability and security, necessitating distributed C-RAN architectures. This next phase requires a new 5G xHaul transport network, which provides increased capacity and connectivity for mass rollout, flexibility to support any RAN distribution architecture and its evolution, and the traffic engineering to help guarantee xHaul network performance. Of course, mobile operators are not the only ones needing more capacity, increased connectivity and guaranteed performance. Work-from-home, new services like e-health, online cloud gaming and cloud evolution in the enterprise are also driving these requirements. In addition, governments are committed to bridging the digital divide, so these capabilities must be provided to a much-increased geographical reach. Supporting these various demands requires multilayer IP Optical transport networks designed to flexibly support different types of

services, rather than providing a specialized network just for 5G xHaul. These networks must provide the multiservice, multi-access aggregation required to integrate all the different services onto a common platform in addition to the multilayer traffic engineering that helps ensure the transport meets performance guarantees. A multiservice transport network allows mobile network operators to benefit from economies of scale, whether they are building their own or leasing connectivity/capacity from another provider. One of the fundamental building blocks to enabling this shared network is the ability to perform accurate multi-layer traffic engineering.

WHAT IS TRAFFIC ENGINEERING? Traffic engineering is the steering of traffic to meet service performance and requirements such as subscriber attributes, load hours, mobility and latency, and optimising network usage based on service traffic patterns. Segment Routing Traffic Engineering (SR-TE) dynamically differentiates and directs traffic across the network to meet both performance needs and network constraints. Multi-layer path computation provides optimised transport across the IP and optical network layers, improving resource usage, economics, and performance. So, for example, a group of premium-paying mobile consumers will expect an uninterrupted, high-quality experience while streaming a live football game during rush hour, regardless of how heavily loaded the network is. With traffic engineering, service providers can automatically and dynamically steer network traffic to the right place, lowering the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) while delivering the expected mobile experience. In network terms, traffic is managed in response to load shifts in the network. Best effort traffic will take longer routes when live streaming traffic is present, decongesting the premium route to maintain latency figures.

In general, autonomous, dynamic adjustment to changing traffic patterns is required for an efficient and reliable network: manual configuration can be very complex and is often too time-consuming, causing intermittent service degradation and negatively impacting the user experience. Conversely, manually anticipated network adaptation can come too early, potentially leading to wasted network resources. Dynamic, closed loop systems coupled with a programmable network infrastructure optimise the process, providing for increased efficiency and reliability.

HOW IT WORKS Traffic engineering assures bandwidth and network reliability by computing an end-to-end path across the IP Optical transport network. The route is pre-planned by offline optimisation algorithms or real time computation instead of locally finding the best next-hop to the destination. Leveraging the pre-planned routes allows service providers to preserve valuable network resources such as bandwidth on each port or link, and ensures protection against node and link failures by pre-computing back-up paths. Both service and network performance are dramatically improved by having guaranteed bandwidth, regardless of any failures, heavy traffic loads or congested nodes or links. Traffic engineering allows service providers to seamlessly manage and adjust to changing traffic patterns. In addition, the closed loop automation of the network allows service providers to redirect traffic to new paths, either in reaction to network utilisation or to prepare for future demands. These traffic flows can have different paths and be assigned different levels of protection based on the specific scenario at play.

TRAFFIC ENGINEERING AND 5G NETWORK SLICING Network slicing is one of the many highly anticipated benefits of 5G, allowing for the precise matching of network to service. This significantly improves performance and enables new revenue generating 5G services. With network slicing, multiple tenants can

share a single physical infrastructure, allowing service providers to manage resources independently for each by specifying a service level to manage quality of service per slice. Tailored traffic engineering policies for each 5G service can run in each slice, assigning the appropriate network resources to each traffic pattern use case. With these strict resource isolation capabilities in place, new levels of sophistication become possible as service providers can assign slices per flow, on demand, and deliver customised traffic engineering policies per slice, creating new revenue opportunities. With the ability to sell or lease slices separately or as a hierarchical bundle, service providers can create services by delivering secured bandwidth to units within an enterprise or strict isolation, for example to government agencies and defence departments, seeking independent, secure networks within an organisation. The ability to deliver services faster, with increased security, isolation and SLAs will lead to new innovations and business models such as Infrastructure-as-a-Service. Traffic engineering is not a new concept, but this proven technology can be instrumental in helping mobile service providers enjoy a smoother and more lucrative transition to 5G. Increasingly dynamic network usage patterns, combined with the strict performance requirements 5G will bring, only enhance traffic engineering’s appeal for service providers aiming to effectively enable innovation and revenue generation.

While 5G deployments taking place across the world began with enhanced mobile broadband in urban areas using existing mobile backhaul networks in non-standalone architectures, we are now entering the next phase as the number of 5G capable devices rapidly ramp.

“This proven technology can be instrumental in helping mobile service providers enjoy a smoother and more lucrative transition to 5G”


Monday 28 June | 15:30 - 16:30

Empower Your Business with Inspur Servers

Monday 28 June | 14:15 - 15:15

Connected Mobility in a 5G World

Tuesday 29 June | 11:00 -12:30

Wireless Foundation Summit

Wednesday 30 June | 16:45 - 17:45

City Nervous System - The UrbsenseVision by Ubiwhere

Download the MWC21 Event App or visit

mwcbarcelona.com to view the most up-to-date agenda

Monday 28 June | 15:30 - 16:30

Connected Vehicle Services:Catching the Mobile Edge

Monday 28 June | 16:45 - 17:45

Reinventing 5G Cloud-nativeNetworks, Together

Monday 28 June | 11:45 - 12:45

Network Transformation Using Cloud,AI and Automation

Monday 28 June | 10:30 - 11:30

Inspiring Mobile Business with Contextual Awareness, Reliable Connectivity and Robust

Security from Infineon

Monday 28 June | 18:00 - 19:00

Edge of Wonderful:Unleashing the Possibilities of 5G

Monday 28 June

Monday 28 June | 11:45 - 12:45 Monday 28 June | 13:00 - 14:00

Delivering the Full Potential of 5G

Monday 28 June | 14:15 - 15:15

Let’s Prepare for Tomorrow’s DigitalWorld Challenges: New Technologies,Hyper-connectivity, Cyber-protection

Monday 28 June | 10:30 - 11:30

Generate New Revenue Streams with 5G Enterprise Cybersecurity and SASEMonday 28 June | 08:00 - 09:00

Getting the Edge on Revenue Opportunities

Monday 28 June | 19:15 - 20:15

Galaxy Ecosystem / New Watch Experience / Mobile Security

Tuesday 29 June | 16:45 - 17:45

At the Edge of Innovation

Tuesday 29 June | 18:00 - 19:00

Digitalizing Enterprise and Industry with 5G:Beyond Connectivity

Tuesday 29 June | 14:15 - 15:15

Trust is Everyone’s Business: ProtectingBrands, Consumers and Our Networks

in a Time of Digital DistrustTuesday 29 June | 11:45 - 12:45

Accelerating Development of5G Open Networking

Tuesday 29 June | 09:30 - 12:00

Stepping into a New IoT Generation:Sophistication in Strategy, Management,

and Forward ThinkingTuesday 29 June | 08:00 - 09:00

Partnering for New GenerationTelecommunications

Tuesday 29 June | 10:30 - 11:30

The Augmented Reality Revolution:A Guided Tour by Snap

Tuesday 29 June | 09:15 - 10:15

Vodafone Digital Society:Connecting for a Better Future

Tuesday 29 June | 15:30 - 16:30

Open RAN Deployment:NTTDoCoMo Perspectives and

Xilina Solutions

Wednesday 30 June | 13:00 - 14:00

Network Disaggregation - OpenRANJourney, from Concept to DeploymentsWednesday 30 June | 08:00 - 10:15

GTI Online Summit 2021

Wednesday 30 June | 11:45 - 12:45

Taiwan's Best Practices in Smart City

Wednesday 30 June | 15:30 - 16:30

Ready, Connect, Trust:Unleashing the Potential of Trusted Data

Wednesday 30 June | 14:15 - 15:15

The First 5G Mobile WiFi Device withHyperConn™ Launch Event

Wednesday 30 June | 10:30 - 11:30

5G SA Prime

Thursday 01 July | 10:30 - 11:30

Messaging in 5G Era

Thursday 01 July | 08:00 - 09:00

AI-on-5G: Bringing ConnectedIntelligence to Every Industry

Thursday 01 July | 09:15 - 10:15

TTA Access to Tech Startup to Collaborate with Global Industry

Thursday 01 July | 11:45 - 12:45

Power Personalized Experiences atScale with a Built-for-Purpose Tech

Monday 28 June | 09:15 - 10:15

Innovation Through Open Source

Tuesday 29 June | 13:00 - 14:00

Faster 5G Roll-out and Next-level VehicleSafety: With Location, Now We Can

Beyond Innovation 13:00 - 13:30Bring AI Capabilities to Your Network Edge

13:30 - 14:00

Attend a Partner Programme

28 June - 01 July 2021


36304_stc_corporate_GRI_Report.indd 336304 stc corporate GRI Report indd 3 10/06/2021 10:25 PM10/06/2021 10:25 PM


SPONSORED BY

CONFERENCE GUIDE

36304_stc_corporate_GRI_Report.indd 3 10/06/2021 10:25 PM5 PM


AGENDA | CONFERENCE GUIDE


12:30 - 13:15 Analysts on MWC21: What’s New & Worth your Attention? Connected Industry The Studio, Hall 3

Moderator: Peter Jarich, Head of GSMA Intelligence, GSMA

Roland Montagne, Principal Analyst, FTTH, Broadband Markets, IDATE

Caroline Chan, VP, Data Platforms Group, GM, Network Business Incubator Division, Intel Corporation

Stéphane Téral, Chief Analyst, LightCounting

Camille Mendler, Chief Analyst, Omdia

Keith Dyer, Editor, The Mobile Network

13:00 - 14:00 Open RAN Connectivity Auditorium A, Hall 3

Moderator: Femi Adeyemi, Head of Wireless, Fujitsu

Tejas Rao, MD, Global Partnerships & V&A Lead, Network Connected Services, Accenture

Francois Moreau de Saint Martin, EVP, Strategy, Orange Wholesale International Networks

Emanuel Kolta, Senior Analyst, Social & Regional Research, GSMA Intelligence

Eugina Jordan, VP, Marketing, Parallel Wireless

Stephen Douglas, Head of 5G Strategy, Spirent

13:00 - 14:00 Delivering Scalability through Partnerships Connected Industry Auditorium B, Hall 2

Moderator: Maria Zervaki, Manager, Compliance and Marketing Intelligence, Access Partnership

Angus Ward, CEO, Beyond by BearingPoint

Philippe Lucas, EVP, Equipment & Partnerships, Orange Group

Elmar Pritsch, President Bosch Connected Mobility Solutions, Robert Bosch

Nicholas Zylberglajt, CEO, Unmanned Life

13:00 - 14:00 The New Role of Your Home Creative Technology My MWC Online

Moderator: Jefferson Wang, Global 5G Lead, Accenture

Jonathan Skogmo, Founder & Co-CEO, Jukin Media

Jerry Paradise, VP, Commercial Product & Portfolio, Lenovo PCs & Smart Devices, Lenovo

Antonio Guzmán Sacristán, Digital Home Director, Telefonica SA, Telefónica

Isaac Bess, Senior Director & Global Head of Distribution Partnerships, Tiktok

14:15 - 15:00 Bridging the Digital Gap Future Society The Studio, Hall 3

Doreen Bogdan-Martin, Director, Telecommunication Development Bureau, International Telecommunication Union

15:00 - 16:00 Blockchain in IoT Connected Industry Auditorium A, Hall 3

Moderator: Shahid Ahmed, Group EVP New Venture and Innovation, NTT Ltd

Jens Gaudaen, VP, Sector Lead, Technology, DHL Supply Chain

Paul Brody, Global Innovation Leader, Blockchain Technology, EY

Marc Halbfinger, CEO, PCCW Global

15:00 - 16:00 What does the New Consumer Look Like? Customer Experience Auditorium B, Hall 2

Moderator: Greg Cudahy, Global TMT Sector Leader, EY

Daniel Hodges, Founder & CEO, Consumers in Motion

Roger Sendra, MD, Barcelona, Dentsu

Kerstin Trikalitis, CEO & Co-Founder, Out There Media

Jeff Miller, President & CEO, Synchronoss Technologies

Michael Modon, Head of Distribution Business Development, TikTok

15:00 - 16:00 The Role of Telco Partnerships in Covid-19 Recovery Future Society My MWC Online

Moderator: Jim Brisimitzis, Founder & General Partner, 5G Open Innovation Lab

Angela Logothetis, CTO, Amdocs Open Network

Maikel Wilms, Partner & Director, Telecommunications, BCG

Shawn Hakl, Partner, Azure for Operators, Microsoft

John Saw, EVP, Advanced & Emerging Technologies, T-Mobile

16:00 - 16:45 Automating the Sales Pipeline Customer Experience The Studio, Hall 3

Moderator: Tom Loozen, Global Telecommunications Industry Leader, EY

Stig Waagbø, CEO, Telenor Digital

Shaun Collins, Executive Chairman, CCS Insight

Mary Clark, Chief Product Officer and P&L Leader, TMT Sector

MONDAY

09:30 - 11:00 Keynote 1: Our Connected World Connectivity Keynote Stage, Hall 3 Streamed live on MobileWorldLive.com

Yang Jie, Chairman, China Mobile

Timotheus Höttges, CEO, Deutsche Telekom

Mats Granryd, Director General, GSMA

Stéphane Richard, Chairman & CEO, Orange Group

José María Álvarez- Pallete López, Chairman & CEO, Telefónica

Nick Read, CEO, Vodafone

11:45 - 12:45 Keynote 2: Future is Digital Connected Industry Keynote Stage, Hall 3 Streamed live on MobileWorldLive.com

Moderator: Stephanie Lynch-Habib, CMO, GSMA

Adam Selipsky, CEO, AWS

Eugene Kaspersky, CEO, Kaspersky

Rima Qureshi, CSO, Verizon

Hans Vestberg, Chairman & CEO, Verizon

Cristiano Amon, CEO, Qualcomm

17:00 - 18:00 Keynote 3: Networks for Change Connected Industry My MWC Online Streamed live on MobileWorldLive.com

Julie Sweet, CEO, Accenture

Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM

Nik Storonsky, Founder & CEO, Revolut

Anne Boden, Founder & CEO, Starling Bank

Caroline Casey, Founder & Creator, The Valuable 500

Xu Ziyang, Executive Director & President, ZTE

Sarah Wilkinson, CEO, NHS Digital

Kate Smaje, Senior Partner, McKinsey

Information correct as of June 10th 2021


CONFERENCE GUIDE | AGENDA


11:00 - 12:00 Consumer Winners & Losers in a Post Covid-19 World Customer Experience My MWC Online

Moderator: Pritesh Gadhia, Lead UK & Ireland, Accenture Interactive Moderator: David Murphy, Editorial Director, Mobile Marketing Magazine Adam Blacker, VP, Insights & Communications, Apptopia Bill Magnuson, Co-Founder & CEO, Braze Kayee Cheung, VP Commercial, Global Innovation, Skyscanner Mark Gilbert, GM The Supernetwork, Twilio Inc.

12:00 - 12:30 AI for Telecoms: is Automation only about Technology? AI The Studio, Hall 3

Moderator: Pablo Iacopino, Head of Research & Commercial Content, GSMA Intelligence Moderator: Tim Hatt, Head of Research & Consulting, GSMA Intelligence Marc Price, CTO, MATRIXX Software

Summer Chen, GM, Branding & Communication Department, ZTE Corporation

12:30 - 13:30 Setting Targets: Industry-wide Climate Action Future Society My MWC Online

Moderator: Steven Moore, Head of Climate Action, GSMA

Nick Hughes, Founder & Managing Director, 4R Digital Ltd

David Bergvinson, Chief Science Officer, aWhere

Melanie Kubin Hardewig, VP Group Sustainability, Deutsche Telekom

Jaime Rodriguez de Santiago, General Manager, FREE NOW

David Walsh, CEO, Legal Connected

Dr Lucas Joppa, Chief Environmental Officer, Microsoft

Jiang Wen, Deputy GM, RAN Product Marketing, ZTE

13:00 - 14:00 Connectivity as a Service: Trip to the Cloud Connectivity Auditorium A, Hall 3

Moderator: Ferry Grijpink, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Co

Jeannine Peek, Country Leader, CapGemini

Bikash Koley, VP, Global Marketing, Google

Steve McCaffery, EVP of EMEA & APAC Sales, Ribbon Communications

Toni Eid, CEO/Editor in Chief, Telecom Review

Johan Wibergh, CTO, Vodafone

Sanjay Uppal, SVP & GM, Service Provider & Edge Business Unit, VMware

13:00 - 14:00 5G IoT for Industry 4.0 Connected Industry Auditorium B, Hall 2

Moderator: Aruna Srinivasan, Executive Director, IoT, GSMA

Moderator: Angus Ward, CEO, Beyond by BearingPoint

Hakim Achouri, 5G Solution Architect, Airbus

Greg Cudahy, Global TMT Sector Leader, EY

Stephane Gervais, EVP Strategic Innovation & Smart Data, La Croix Group

Nicolas Damour, Director, Technology Partnership Development, Sierra Wireless

Andrés Escribano, New Business & Industry 4.0 Director, Telefónica Tech

Elise Neel, VP, New Business Incubation, Verizon

14:30 - 15:30 Internet of Behaviour Future Society My MWC Online

Moderator: Martin Sokalski, Principal, Digital Strategy and Solutions Leader, KPMG

Koen Deryckere, Global Lead, Industry Networks & Programs, Accenture

Fabio M. Potenti, Chief Medical Operating Officer, Department of Colorectal Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Florida

Stacey Shulman, VP, Internet of Things Group / GM Health, Life Sciences and Emerging Technologies, Intel

Colin Angle, CEO, iRobot

Jon Pershke, VP, Strategy & Emerging Business Development, Lenovo

15:00 - 16:00 Building the Edge: The Shift in Computing Capabilities Connectivity Auditorium A, Hall 3

Moderator: Lluc Palerm Serra, Principal Analyst, Northern Sky Research

David Gannon, VP, Technology Strategy & Industry Relations, Deutsche Telekom

Amol Phadke, MD, Telecom Industry Solutions, Google Cloud

Daryl Cromer, VP & CTO, Lenovo’s Global PCs & Smart Devices, Lenovo

Julia Velasco, Vodafone Spain Network Director, Vodafone

Amrit Heer, Head of Business of Europe & Middle East, Parallel Wireless

Carlos J Bernardos, VP, 5TONIC lab & Associate Professor at UC3M, Telefónica

15:00 - 16:00 Transforming Automotive & Mobility with 5G Connected Industry Auditorium B, Hall 2

Moderator: Richard Cockle, Global Head of IoT, Identity & Big Data, GSMA

Moderator: Shahid Ahmed, Group EVP New Venture and Innovation, NTT Ltd

Abel Carbonell, Head of Electronics, Applus+ IDIADA

Johannes Springer, Program Lead 5G Automotive Program, Deutsche Telekom AG / T-Systems International

Spencer Rosen, Head of Business Development, Connected Infrastructure, HARMAN Samsung

Nicolas Damour, Director, Technology Partnership Development, Sierra Wireless

Bernardo Campillo Soto, Head of Industry Partnerships, Telefónica

16:30 - 17:30 Unlocking value from FinTech Connected Industry My MWC Online

Moderator: Brian Gorman, Financial Services Vertical Lead, GSMA

Tim Zhou, Chief Security Architect, Risk & Compliance, ANT Group

Kunal Bist, Global Head of Cross Border Solutions & Partnerships, Payments & Receivables Treasury and Trade Solutions, Citi

Chris Williamson, Managing Director, Vodacom M-Pesa

17:00 - 18:00 AI Ethics: Debate AI Auditorium A, Hall 3

Moderator: Alejandra Fraile Gomez, Marketing Director, Musgrave

Elena Estavillo, Associate Director & President, Aequum / Conectadas

Sheetal Rishi, Director, Cloud, Data & AI, IBM

Jean-Christophe Fondeur, CTO, IDEMIA

Francisco José Montalvo Abiol, Chief Data Officer, Telefónica

17:00 - 18:00 Industrial Applications for Mobile-enabled Drones Connected Industry Auditorium B, Hall 2

Moderator: Richard Cockle, Global Head of IoT, Identity & Big Data, GSMA

Moderator: Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Director, CIVATAglobal

Patrick Castagnino, Connectivity Business Development for Digital Aviation, Airbus

Marc Beltran, COO & Partner, BCN Drone Center

Toby Townrow, Business Development Director, Drone Evolution

Hendrik Bödecker, CFO & Founder, Drone Industry Insights

Philippe Vallée, EVP, Thales Digital Identity & Security, Thales

Nicholas Zylberglajt, CEO, Unmanned Life


09:30 - 11:00 Keynote 4: Connected Impact Connected Industry Keynote Stage, Hall 3 Streamed live on MobileWorldLive.com

Ryan Ding, Executive Director, President of Carrier BG, Huawei

Mathew Oommen, CEO, Reliance Jio

Danielle Royston, CEO & Founder, TelcoDR

Raffaele Annecchino, President & CEO, ViacomCBS Networks International

TUESDAY


AGENDA | CONFERENCE GUIDE


11:00 - 12:00 Setting the Roadmap to 6G Connectivity Auditorium A, Hall 3

Moderator: Lawrence Chu, Managing Director, Moelis & Company Haitham Abdul Razzak, CTO, Etisalat Tim Hatt, Head of Research & Consulting, GSMA Intelligence Mohamed Madkour, VP Wireless Networks Marketing & Solutions, Huawei Hans Neff, Director CTO Group, ZTE

11:00 - 12:00 How Data & AI Engage the Customer Customer Experience Auditorium B, Hall 2

Moderator: Tom Loozen, Global Telecommunications Industry Leader, EY Philippe Morin, CEO, EXFO Fernando Núñez-Mendoza, Chairman & CEO, fonYou Telecom Karine Dussert-Sarthe, EVP Group Marketing, Design & Open Innovation, Orange Group Francesco Ferro, CEO, PAL Robotics Nigel Vaz, CEO, Publicis Sapient Mercedes Jiménez López, Director of Data Transformation and Advance Analytics, Telefónica Vasco Pedro, CEO & Co-Founder, Unbabel

11:00 - 12:00 Extended Reality Creative Technology My MWC Online

Moderator: Mathangi Sandilya, Global Technology Lead, Accenture

Luke Ritchie, Head of Interactive Arts, Nexus Studios Neil Trevett, President, The Khronos Group Timoni West, VP, XR Tools, Unity Technologies Xuan Zhu, Chief Engineer, Intergated Solution, ZTE

12:00 - 12:45 Launching FinTech Connected Industry The Studio, Hall 3

Moderator: Richard Cockle, Global Head of IoT, Identity & Big Data, GSMA Piotr Tyminski, EMEA Digital Head Commercial Bank, Citi Benjamí Puigdevall, CEO, Imagin María Jesús Almazor, CEO Cyber & Cloud, Telefónica Tech

13:00 - 14:00 Sustainable 5G Networks: Always on Connectivity & its Impact on Environment Connected Industry Auditorium A, Hall 3

Moderator: Pablo Valerio, Editor, Frontwave Media Andy Wales, Chief Digital Impact & Sustainability Officer, BT Emmanuel Lugagne-Delpon, Network CTO, Orange Group

Pedro Ruão, Founder & CEO, Omniflow

Mats Pellbäck Scharp, Head of Sustainability, Ericsson

13:00 - 14:00 Building Security & Creating Trust for the Connected Device Connected Industry Auditorium B, Hall 2

Moderator: Peter Jarich, Head of GSMA Intelligence, GSMA Adam Bangle, VP EMEA, Blackberry Kimmo Pentikäinen, VP, Business Development Production, Elisa Corporation Peter Riedel, President & COO, Rohde & Schwarz Anders Strömberg, Head of Wearable Platform Division, Sony Network Communications Europe

13:00 - 14:00 Debate: Does AI need Regulating? AI My MWC Online

Moderator: Francois Candelon, Global Leader, BCG Henderson Institute, BCG Leo Mikko, Huawei Public Affairs Chief AI Expert, Huawei Richard Benjamins, Chief AI & Data Strategist, Telefonica, Co-Founder of OdiseIA Andrew Wyckoff, Director, Directorate for Science, Technology and Innovation, OECD Sonia Agnese, Senior Principal Analyst Latin America, Omdia

14:00 - 15:00 Enabling Digital Transformation of Industries in the 5G Era Connected Industry The Studio, Hall 3

Moderator: Sylwia Kechiche, Principal Analyst, IoT & Enterprise, GSMA Intelligence Romil Bahl, President & CEO, KORE Jane Rygaard, Head of Dedicated Wireless Networks & Edge Clouds, Nokia Andrés Escribano, New Business & Industry 4.0 Director, Telefónica Tech Ed Cabrera, Chief Cybersecurity Officer, Trend Micro

14:45 - 15:45 The Future of Personalised Advertising Customer Experience My MWC Online

German Martinez del Olmo, Head of Advertising Spain, Amazon Advertising Pranay Agrawal, Co-Founder & CEO, Fractal Analytics Benjamin Braun, CMO, Samsung Europe Sarah Iooss, Head of Sales, Americas, Twitch Guru Gowrappan, CEO, Verizon Media

15:00 - 15:45 AI in Healthcare: Covid-19 & the Future AI Auditorium A

Moderator: Rachel Dunscombe, CEO, NHS Digital Academy and Principle of Tektology, Tektology Joseph Corrigan, Head of Intelligent Healthcare, Cambridge Consultants Bill Wong, AI and Data Analytics Practice Leader, Dell Technologies Keith Errey, CEO & Co-Founder, Isansys Vince Lynch, CEO, IV.AI Azhar Sayeed, Chief technologist, Telecoms, Red Hat Kim Clement, CTO, Unmanned Life Sergio Parolari, RAN WG2 Vice-Chairman, ZTE

15:00 - 15:45 Public Cloud Services Connectivity Auditorium B, Hall 2

Moderator: Michael Speranza, CEO, ZephyrTel Neil McCrae, MD Architecture & Strategy, BT Group Chief Architect, BT Gabriele Di Piazza, Director, Outbound Product Management, Telco, Google Steve McCaffery, EVP, EMEA & APAC Sales, Ribbon Communications

Steve McCaffery, EVP, EMEA & APAC Sales, Ribbon Communications Philippe Vallée, EVP, Thales Digital Identity & Security, Thales

16:00 - 16:45 Technologies Vs Pandemic Creative Technology The Studio, Hall 3

Moderator: Oksana Pyzik, Global Engagement Lead, UCL School of Pharmacy Vincent Bouchiat, CEO & Cofounder, Grapheal Pablo Iacopino, Head of Research & Commercial Content, GSMA Intelligence Carolina Aguilar, CEO & Founder, Inbrain Neuroelectronics Richard Benjamins, Chief AI & Data Strategist, Telefonica, Co-Founder of OdiseIA Hans Neff, Director CTO Group, ZTE

16:30 - 17:30 Reigniting Venues & Events: The Role of Tech Public Cloud Services Creative Technology My MWC Online

Moderator: Peters Suh, Lead, Network & Connected Services, North America, Accenture Phil Hutcheon, CEO & Founder, DICE Tami Erwin, EVP & CEO, Verizon Business Group

Dan Costello, Chief Revenue Officer & SVP, Business Innovation, Phoenix Suns

Skarpi Hedinsson, CTO, SoFi Stadium and Hollywood Park

16:45 - 17:30 Unlocking the Power of Security Tools with AI AI Auditorium A, Hall 3

Martin Borrett, IBM Distinguished Engineer, CTO & Technical Executive IBM Security EMEA, IBM Victor Chebyshev, Research Development Team Lead, Targeted Attacks Research, Kaspersky Nicolas Kourtellis, Research Scientist, Telefónica

16:45-17:45 ClimaTech: How is Digitisation Reducing Emissions Future Society Auditorium B, Hall 2

Moderator: John Giusti, Head of Advocacy & Chief Regulatory Officer, GSMA Marc Gomez, CEO, ABB Spain Fabio De Pasquale, Digital Business Development & Innovation, Global Manufacturing, Atos Allen Smith, Head of UX, VP Digital & Service Design, Electrolux Michel Fraisse, Europe VP & CTO, Digital Power Solution, Huawei Alicia Asín Pérez, Co-Founder & CEO, Libelium Andrés Escribano, New Business & Industry 4.0 Director, Telefónica Tech


WEDNESDAY

09:30 - 11:00 Keynote 5: NexTech Future Society Keynote Stage, Hall 3 Streamed live on MobileWorldLive.com

Moderator: Ralph Simon, Founder & CEO, Mobilium Global Limited

Rod Menchaca, CEO, AIS

Zina Jarrahi Cinker, Director General, AMPT

Dr. Antonio de Lacy, Chief of Gastrointestinal Surgery Department, Hospital Clínic, Barcelona

Ana Maiques, CEO & Founder, Neuroelectrics


CONFERENCE GUIDE | AGENDA


THURSDAY10:30 - 11:00 Rural Connectivity Connectivity The Studio, Hall 3

Moderator: Claire Sibthorpe, Head of Connected Women, Connected Society & Assistive Tech, GSMA

Marc Allera, CEO, BT Consumer Brands

Paul Desjardins, VP, Sales & Business Development, Clear Blue Tech

Jahmy Hindman, CTO, John Deere

Nicolas Zibell, Chief Business Officer, KaiOS Technologies

Bernard Borghei, Co-Founder & EVP Operations, Vertical Bridge

Mohammed Samiul Islam, Owner, Z Tech

12:00 - 12:45 End-User Showcase Connected Industry The Studio, Hall 3

Moderator: Angus Ward, CEO, Beyond by BearingPoint

Patrick Castagnino, Connectivity Business Development for Digital Aviation, Airbus

Adrian Smith, Director, Digital Transformation, NHS, NHS Arden & Greater East Midlands Care Commissioning Unit

Mirela Vila Trunas, IT Director South West Europe and Turkey, Pepsico

Phil Skipper, Head of Strategy & Businesses Development, Vodafone Business IoT

14:00 - 14:45 MWC21: Who Won, Who Lost, & What Did We Learn? Connectivity The Studio, Hall 3

Moderator: Peter Jarich, Head of GSMA Intelligence, GSMA

Ronny Haraldsvik, SVP, CMO & Business Development, Cohere Technologies

Dino Flore, VP, Technology, Qualcomm Europe

WE’RE EVERYWHERE.

Developing Intelligent Imaging technology that connect you to a powerfully visual world. ArcSoft is a global leader of visual computing and AI (Artificial Intelligence) solutions across devices on major platforms – from smartphones, automobile, smart home, smart robot, smart retail to cloud-based enterprise solutions. ArcSoft was established in 1994, with regional commercial and development facilities in the US (California), Dublin, Tokyo, Seoul, Taipei, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Nanjing. ArcSoft solutions have been shipped with 10 billion hardware products over the past two decades. Our mission is to improve the capture process, image quality and user experience of computational photography and videography. Visit ArcSoft at stand 3O2MR and 3O4MR

MOST POWERFUL 3D IMAGING Face authentication, outstanding photo experience, gaming, virtual e-Commerce, 3D online education and Augmented Reality (AR) applications – a new leve of experience with three-dimensional depth data in real-time. Infineon and pmdtechnologies offer with REAL3™ a 3D depth sensor based on the Time of Flight (ToF)-technology which outperforms other solutions in the market. This year we take ToF to the next level or to be more specific: under the surface. For new smartphone designs without a notch. With the latest imager generation, especially developed for long-range applications, we revolutionized the camera system of flagship phones by providing high-speed autofocus and beautiful bokeh effects even in low light situations, based on accurate depth information in every part of the scene. www.infineon.com/mwc

EXHIBITOR NEWS


With what you’re pulling off in such a short amount of time with CLOUD CITY by TelcoDR at MWC21, you’re doing what many people thought was improbable – and others, impossible. Tell us how you’ve done this. Planning a booth of this magnitude in 100 days has been quite an undertaking. Our teams have grown to hundreds of people overnight, and everyone has been working 100-hour weeks since March. But this is such an incredible opportunity for the entire TelcoDR organisation, it’s all been worth it. We’ve built a spectacular space at MWC this year, and we’ve done it in 100 days. I think a lot of people will be talking about us for a long time.

I think people who don’t know me didn’t think it could be done. But for MWC21, we’ve turned CLOUD CITY by TelcoDR into the epicenter of the event, and that for sure was one of our goals. I think having the public cloud at the forefront of discussion within telco has been a long time coming, and when this opportunity presented itself, I had to take the shot. And I did!

We have planned a great space. In addition to the meeting rooms and networking areas where deals are made, we’ll have an entire space showcasing the most innovative Open RAN vendors and telco software providers that use the public cloud. We have immersive experiences, a

press room, great food and drinks, and concerts with some awesome artists you’re gonna love. The in-person experience is going to be great.

When we set out to plan this space, we didn’t really know what to expect come June. So from the beginning, we also planned a great virtual experience too. We’ll have live streaming broadcasts from our booth throughout the duration of MWC, including our educational sessions and keynote talks.

FEATURE | TELCODR


“We’ve built a spectacular space at MWC this year, and we’ve done it in 100 days. I think a lot of people will be talking about us for a long time.”

TelcoDR sets sky-high MWC21 ambitionsThe biggest talking point of the showfloor at MWC21 is CLOUD CITY – a hugely ambitious project by TelcoDR’s Danielle Royston that will see a 6,000 square metre space showcasing the very best of the public cloud. Here she tells us why she’s so excited by the project and what visitors can expect to experience.


And we will have robots! The telepresence robots will help bring CLOUD CITY by TelcoDR to those who can’t attend in person. It’ll be a great way to experience the booth, see some demos, and have a virtual face-to-face meeting or two. We’re sparing no expense with our experimental approaches for engaging with virtual event attendees this year.

CLOUD CITY is clearly one of the ‘must see’ spaces at MWC this year. Can you tell us more about what visitors can expect to find there? We broke up the space into a bunch of focus areas. Let me tell you about them. To start, CLOUD CITY by TelcoDR is all about the public cloud, and my belief that it’s an inevitable technological wave that’s coming to our industry. CSPs are going to have to deal with the public cloud, whether they like it or not. There’s a growing body of telcos that see this change coming, and they’re already preparing for the shift to the public cloud. The group of vendors you’ll find in CLOUD CITY are the ones that see the change coming and are shifting their roadmaps to get ready for it.

With this in mind, we’ve split our space into three major theme areas: The New Subscriber Experience, The New Network, and The Future of Work.

The New Subscriber Experience space will show telcos the potential for ARPU growth if they really started to focus on the customer. There’s a 360-degree immersive experience where telco execs can see our vision for the subscriber experience as well as great product demonstrations of how they can apply cloud technology to generate tons of customer love.

The New Network area is where visitors can find the new approach to the network – the vendors driving the disaggregation of hardware and software from a network perspective. This is where what’s new and killer in networking tech will be on display, and it’s where Ericsson customers can go to see how to replace their proprietary network products with new O-RAN technology. This is the place to learn about all the amazing stuff telcos can do with public cloud – not just at the network core, but at the edge.

And finally, The Future of Work. Turns out lots of people are MORE productive and WAY happier WFH than being stuck in the office. The third thematic area at CLOUD CITY by TelcoDR is dedicated to the idea that the future of work isn’t housed in corporate real estate, but instead distributed. And the only way we were able to get through the pandemic was with the public cloud and the NETWORK.

You’ll also want to tune into my keynote on Tuesday. I’m taking center-stage again and I’m going to share my thoughts on how the public cloud is the future of our industry. It will be broadcast on mobileworldlive.com starting at 9:30 AM CEST on Tuesday, June 29th. I hope you can make it!

In terms of industry developments, what are you making of the DISH partnership with AWS, and how is this different from other announcements we’ve seen made with carriers moving to the cloud? The DISH news was HUGE news. This is everything I’ve been talking about. It represents the breaking of the old school thought pattern, and I think it has rocked our industry. That story owned the news cycle for a couple of weeks as pundits and analysts tried to dissect what it meant. I think what made it different was that it wasn’t just a chunk of DISH’s IT systems, it wasn’t just BSS, it wasn’t just some of their core network functions for some of their market segments...it’s EVERYTHING!

If DISH does what it has set out to do, it will be the most complete use of public cloud for a telco to date, and it will prove that you can do way more on the public cloud than what people think. Nobody expected a major network in the US (one of the biggest networks in the world) would be built on AWS. Some people were thinking this might never happen, or that it was years away. This shows that telcos are ready for it now.

I think DISH realised that by partnering with AWS, they could build a dramatically better product for their subscribers – and that they’d be able to do it at a significantly lower cost. They’re saying their 5G network is going to cost them $10 billion to build. That’s kind of insane.

It feels like the telco industry is waking up to the TelcoDR vision. How is TelcoDR going to play a role in the public cloud transformation taking place during the coming years? TelcoDR sees it as our mission to help telcos transition to the public cloud, so I think I’m going to play a big part in this transformation!

There’s many ways in which my organisation intends to help the telco industry fully realise and capitalise on this coming change. I’ll continue to proselytise the public cloud. I’ll continue to advise and consult with telco executives who need help moving to the public cloud. I will invest in telco software providers that align with my vision for building telco software for the public cloud (like I did with Totogi). I’ll acquire telco software providers that need help in aggressively moving their products to the public cloud. And when necessary, I’ll build the software when no one is stepping up to the plate. I believe the use of the public cloud is a wholesale platform change that is coming to our industry. I see this as an inevitable change, and I’m super excited to be leading this parade and will be doing whatever it takes to make it happen.

The DISH/AWS story was a big wake up call for the industry, and MWC21 is going to be the first time many industry execs consider the public cloud seriously. And the timing couldn’t have been more perfect for MWC21 and CLOUD CITY by TelcoDR! I’m psyched to get to Barcelona, to meet with people again in person, and drive this change.

If anyone wants to get in touch directly before MWC, during or after... Hit me up on Twitter @TelcoDR!

TELCODR | FEATURE


“The DISH/AWS story was a big wake up call for the industry, and MWC21 is going to be the first time many industry execs consider the public cloud seriously.”

“If DISH does what it has set out to do, it will be the most complete use of public cloud for a telco to date, and it will prove that you can do way more on the public cloud than what people think.”

“I think people who don’t know me didn’t think it could be done. But for MWC21, we’ve turned CLOUD CITY by TelcoDR into the epicenter of the event, and that for sure was one of our goals.”

“We’ve split our space into three major theme areas: The New Subscriber Experience, The New Network, and The Future of Work.”


PRIVATE 5G | ZTE


ZTE pushes flexibility, simplicity in private 5G networks

Private networks are a key focus of many operators’ 5G trials as they search for new revenue opportunities

beyond their macro networks catering to consumers. The interest in private infrastructure is being fuelled in large part by the accelerated deployment of 5G networks worldwide.

A study by Ookla and GlobalData found 163 operators deployed 5G infrastructure, with the vast majority based on non-standalone (NSA), which is heavily reliant on LTE.

Specifically, private networks are growing rapidly, and most of the activity today has been with LTE. But that is changing rapidly as deployments move beyond mobile broadband to applications and use cases requiring the low latency and very high reliability 5G offers, such as AR, VR and robotics, said Glen Hunt, principal analyst for telecom technology and software at GlobalData.

Private networks are now one of the fastest growing sectors, with the GSMA and 5G Americas forecasting the addressable market by industries at $57.6 billion between 2019 and 2025.

FAST-TRACK This year is expected to be the breakthrough year, with the market estimated to nearly double year-on-year to $7.4 billion and then jump to $17 billion in 2022.

The main industries driving that growth are utilities, oil and gas, mining, healthcare and public services.

Hunt explained that what is creating this momentum is the fact that each of these verticals can’t require unique infrastructure. “Perhaps it’s unique in terms of the use case and some of the applications, but a solid generic infrastructure capable of being configured and sized correctly to meet the application requirements is what is necessary.”

This applies to all industry verticals, which is why the forecasts are so rosy.

With 5G accelerating worldwide and huge investments made in the construction, Wang Xiaoming, technical director of RAN Product Line at ZTE, asked how will the networks generate new revenue for operators? This is the key challenge given that the B2B sector is characterised by fragmented needs, which means catering to the personalised requirements of enterprises.

“We know 5G is about more than mobile. It’s an enabler of the digital economy, supporting a connected and intelligent society. Moving from the traditional consumer sector into vertical market is both a challenge and the opportunity.”

He said it starts with deployment of an optimised 5G network, with high operational efficiency.

Yang Rui, technical director of Telecom Cloud and Core Networks at ZTE, said the company is focused on delivering private 5G networks that are flexible to customise, simple to operate, with a low cost to get started using a network platform based on a cloud-native 5G core.

She explained there are four typical ways to deploy a private 5G system. The first is using a fully dedicated end-to-end network; the second features a dedicated core with a shared RAN; the third offers a dedicated user plane function and multi-access edge computing with shared RAN and control plane; and the last makes use of a fully shared public network using ‘soft’ slicing.

All options have a cloud core network at the centre and are converged from 2G to 5G, and even support fixed networks.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE Jason Tu, principal scientist for NFV/SDN Products at ZTE, highlighted the best way for small and medium-sided enterprise to have a dedicated network is to move to a private 5G, but from a business point of view, 5G is still has major challenges, the most significant being it is too complicated.

“We have RAN, we have transmission, we have core networks and so much software that needs to be updated and then maintain all the data. Enterprises have to focus on their own business, not on 5G.”

The second challenge is spectrum, which is certainly available to large organisations with resources but SMEs don’t have the funds. Tu suggested these companies tap private 5G network offerings from operators as a managed service.

“Enterprises then don’t have to worry about purchasing spectrum, updates and maintenance. This is the most efficient way, because all the frequency, network and transmission resources can be share by many companies.”

To address the many challenges of B2B network operations and maintenance, ZTE developed a set tools to improve the efficiency of virtual private networks to match that of physical private networks, which have advanced network planning procedures. The company also increased user experience measurements from only bandwidth to three dimensions: bandwidth, latency and reliability.

BUSINESS MODEL Hunt noted in the past operators built infrastructure and charged for it as customers used it, adding: “I think that model is a little

broken right now… things need to move a lot faster.” Funding in the future will likely come from multiple sources, including enterprises and operators.

Yang agreed, noting traditional charging methods were limited, giving operators the choice of flat fees or volume-based charging. “With the determinist features of 5G, SLA-related parameters can also be taken into account. Things like latency, reliability, location and bandwidth. Multi-dimension billing templates can be defined and calculate the charging rate accordingly.”

Hunt argued past attempts to introduce private networks have been fragmented, because they have been proprietary, lack robust security as well as had reliability and performance issues.

“5G changes all that with significant increases in all those areas, and the infrastructure is built on some pretty strong standards,” he stated, noting 3GPP has done a great job of producing standards that are workable. And that work hasn’t been done in a vacuum – “it’s done that in concert with operators and vendors”.

Tu gave the example of China Mobile, which rolled out its standalone 5G network nearly a year ago, moving in that direction. It introducing three private 5G network options for enterprises, with a range of pricing models.

The first is based on network slicing using shared macro RAN, transmission and core networks. It is completely software based and the most economical. Plan two, the priciest option, offers dedicated hardware for cutting-edge applications, such as autonomous cars and robotics requiring both high reliability and low latency. The RAN, transmission and core are not shared.

The third is a hybrid option, with the RAN, the most difficult element to implement, running on the public network, but the core is handled by a dedicated network.

“China Mobile has an aggressive plan to push this business model to generate new revenue from the enterprise side, with the help of standalone 5G and network slicing. They are marketing private network as a service,” Tu said.

At a webinar on Paving the Way Toward Digital Transformation sponsored by ZTE, panellists highlighted how private 5G networks are now able to meet the diversified application requirements of enterprises in the Industry 4.0 era.


Don’t Miss Our Upcoming Themed Weeks

The next two editions of Mobile World Live Themed Weeks will take a hard look at which strategies and opportunities will lead to the greatest 5G successes across a series of live digital events, custom research and expert analysis, including webinars, video interviews, whitepapers, case studies, articles, and more.

w/c 27 September

Opening the Secrets to 5G Success

As 5G networks continue to be deployed, the industry is exploring new strategies, partnerships and technologies to drive growth. An “open” approach to business sits at the heart of this shift. We will explore how a successful 5G rollout must adopt a very different game plan to previous generations of deployment.

w/c 8 November

Is Private 5G a Business Game Changer?

Spending on private 5G has been tipped to outpace traditional public networks in the next decade. And a recent GSMA Intelligence report found that more than 80% of network executives are looking to enterprise applications as the greatest 5G revenue opportunity. We will analyse the opportunities and challenges from private 5G, and the requirements needed for a true digital revolution of industry.

Register Now at www.mobileworldlive.com/themedweeks


FRAUD | AB HANDSHAKE


Why a handshake can become telecoms fraud’s firmest threat

The impact on the industry is enormous, costing telecom operators of all types many billions of dollars. The

Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA) has reported that frauds involving the following issues cost the industry US$18.2bn every year. These include: international revenue share fraud (IRSF) costing US$5bn, call stretching and short-stopping costing US$4bn, PBX hacking costing US$3.6bn, interconnect bypass which costs US$2.7bn, CLI spoofing costing US$2bn and robocalls which cost the industry US$0.9bn.

The scale of the problem means that operators, along with national regulators, have sought to eliminate and prevent fraud. Recent legislation includes the TRACED anti-robocalling act in the US, but fraudsters pay little attention when there is so much money to be made from telecoms fraud. Operators have devoted enormous effort and attention to preventing fraud, investing in fraud management and prevention systems to try and protect their businesses. However, the pace of fraudsters’ innovations often puts them on the back foot and, although certain amounts of revenue are protected, fraud still happens to the scale and extent identified by CFCA.

One reason for this is that telecoms is a fragmented industry. Different jurisdictions have different regulations but, more significantly, telecoms services are often delivered by multiple network operators. A simple voice call could originate on one cellular network and terminate on a fixed line network, involving a different provider. That’s just a simple example, a more complex session could start on a mobile in one country, traverse a global long distance network or networks provided by other operators before terminating on another mobile network.

The interconnections between operators provide enormous potential for fraudsters to embed themselves into the business chain and commit fraud. Much of this activity is hard to

eliminate because, while individual operators have invested in systems to identify and prevent fraud, these are typically confined to their own operations. In essence, they can see what’s happening in their network but they can’t see beyond and understand if and how fraud is occurring in their partners’ networks.

Fraud does not mean only financial losses. Increasingly, the costs also involve reputational damage and operators are seeing delayed consequences such as mistrust among operators. This has resulted in individual operators initiating a variety of fraud protection systems that are incompatible with those of others. The result of this has been no way to interlink fraud-related information between different operators.

Traditional systems offer only reactive protection for individual operators that can use their own data and analyse calls on their networks. This means they can only gain insight into the parts of a call that happen on their own networks. However, if operators can collaborate they can see the full extent of fraud across calls from end-to-end and move from reactively understanding that fraud has happened to proactively co-operating to validate calls across multiple operators.

This is the thinking behind AB Handshake which has launched a new ecosystem for validating calls. The company is building a fraud-free community of operators and is completely confident that this community will be safe from fraud because of the real-time call validation between originating and terminating networks performed by AB Handshake system. In fact, AB Handshake guarantees the community is 100% fraud free because of this capability.

In addition, AB Handshake is able to address the entire operator landscape because the solution works with both TDM and IP networks and therefore all types of operator business can take advantage of the system. This is unique in the telecoms fraud industry which has traditionally been composed of network-specific systems.

To create this community, the company is bringing together operators and associated organisations such as DID number owners to create an end-to-end mechanism by which calls can be validated. Instead of retrospectively identifying fraud and then trying to go back and prevent it happening again, operators can interact with their partners to ensure that traffic across multiple parties’ networks is validated.

For the system to work optimally, as many network operators as possible should collaborate and AB Handshake is adding operators to its ecosystem continuously. Each addition strengthens the ecosystem and enables more calls to be validated so adding more operators is a priority. The model can be compared to the SWIFT financial clearing mechanism that banks use as a trusted method for transferring funds internationally.

To attract operators, AB Handshake is offering the ecosystem with no upfront capex required and is minimising the integration burden for operators – which inevitably has a cost in terms of hours spent. The onboarding process involves identifying the ideal integration option which takes account of the fact that operators have very different networks. To accelerate uptake, the company has a special programme for early adopters to encourage them to join the AB Handshake community.

Joining the community is quite straightforward. Operators simply install the AB Handshake software on a dedicated server and connect it to the network equipment. The system is then ready to use and operators can select their own security policy for signalling solutions.

AB Handshake generates its revenue by charging for validation of calls. As each operator comes on board, a certain portion of their traffic starts to be validated. For example, if an operator has ten connections with other operators and five of them are members of the AB Handshake community, traffic between the member operators will be validated. Each validated call is charged for because that’s where the value of the service lies – the more calls that are validated, the less fraud can occur.

The system charges for any validated call attempt, because the information that a call is not fraudulent is also valuable. Of course, the charging is not excessive with AB Handshake keen to point out that any solution aimed at detecting fraud should not cost more than the cost incurred by the fraud itself. By offering a pay-as-you-grow model, the company believes it can increase the numbers of operators involved to create a global, interconnected ecosystem of operators with every incoming and outgoing call validated with 100% accuracy and there are no false positives.

Operators can monitor the validation process via the web interface which gives visibility into what is happening in the system. This also provides all the necessary logging and export capabilities so operators can enrich the information within their existing fraud management systems.

The sheer scale of telecoms fraud is helping AB Handshake to gain traction among operators with this new approach. The ecosystem currently has around 200 operators in its pipeline at varying stages from negotiation to signing contracts and onboarding. Current participants in the AB Handshake community have live traffic towards any destination in the world, which allows detection of interconnect bypass fraud for any operator that comes on board.

To further grow the community, the company is focused on promoting its solution to operators as well as vendors of software and billing systems who can aid integration with AB Handshake. The company is also working with regulators who are paying increasing attention to telecoms fraud.

The telecoms anti-fraud community is playing an important part in spreading the message about AB Handshake. Once professionals experience the benefits of 100% call validation, they tell colleagues and this drives more operators to the AB Handshake community.

The handshake between operators is enabling validation of all calls across any networks and is becoming the strongest weapon the telecoms industry has against fraudsters.

Telecoms fraud has existed for as long as the industry itself and, despite attempts and numerous systems to manage and prevent fraud, it still continues. In fact, fraud grows with new threats and fraudulent practices emerging continuously. Fraudulent activity encompasses, but is not limited to, imposter fraud, robo-calls, calling line identity (CLI) spoofing, Wangiri frauds, and traffic refiling.


Let’s get down to businessIn 2020, Mobile World Live delivered more than 16,000 leads directly to our clients through our suite of bespoke research, custom content, and media solutions.

Working together with our brand partners, our content marketing team offers rich, interactive experiences for our readers with an exclusive portfolio of webinars, whitepapers, case studies, surveys, video and broadcast interviews, and much more.

Let’s put your brand in the best position to engage our global audience of 155,000+ mobile, tech, and telecoms professionals, including C-suite executives and high-level business decision makers worldwide.

To learn more, contact Ashley Windsor, Sales Director, at [email protected]


GLOMOS | FEATURE


GLOMOs set to recognise mobile’s crucial year

Shaun Collins, Executive Chairman, CCS Insight & Chair of Judges, GLOMOs @shauncollins

By and large, service and technology providers are emerging with their reputations enhanced for equipping

people with the tools they needed to cope with new realities. Connectivity has never been so highly regarded, be that for working from home, getting our kids educated online, or supporting fields that have been central to rebuilding our lives, like healthcare and science. The role technology has played during the pandemic has been impressive and perhaps unexpected. Initiatives including launching communications and connectivity in hospitals and critical care centres in a matter of hours and providing offers for front-line workers, the vulnerable and the needy have been crucial. I sincerely hope regulators, governments and the public remember this collective effort in the future. Whatever the road to recovery looks like, telecom services and connectivity will be at the bleeding edge of it, and we all have an opportunity to answer this challenge. With all this in mind, it's an important year for the GLOMO Awards to recognize the best of the best in the mobility and connected worlds. The GLOMOs go from strength to strength and remain the premier awards programme in our markets. This year's awards ceremony, which will take place on 30 June at 12:00 CEST, will celebrate this prestige and honour the industry's achievements. We hope you can join us. The GLOMOs present a unique opportunity to entrants and nominees. Every contribution is considered by a group of leading influencers in each category, who read, assess and judge the merits of the entry. For many companies, it would be impossible to achieve this kind of exposure without

spending a small fortune on marketing and PR. And in such a competitive industry, being distinguished before a huge global audience on Mobile World Live TV is really a feather in their cap. As the gathering place for the mobile industry, MWC offers the perfect stage for winners. Beyond gaining recognition from the industry, companies have the chance to spend the next 12 months promoting their accolade in their marketing campaigns and with their partners. I know from talking to past winners that receiving an award has had an enormous impact on the success of their service, product or application, and for many, starting out with a limited budget and profile, it has also offered a boon to their business and credibility. In 2021, we have again refreshed the categories, introducing new awards that align with the world in the past 15 months and the areas being shaped by it. We'll be giving out 24 awards in seven categories including Mobile Tech, Industry X, Tech4Good and Outstanding Achievement. All the categories offered the judges an opportunity to recognise mobile innovations that enhance lives, foster greater diversity in tech, build trust in the digital age and advance the vision for smart cities. A new award that's particularly important is Best Innovation for Covid-19 Pandemic Response & Recovery. It's a prime example of the power of mobile technology in influencing behaviour and responding to one of the most pressing challenges the world has faced in a generation. It's also vital that we recognise how digital technology can make the world a smarter, fairer place. In that context, the

Tech4Good category and the five winners in it are fascinating. Awards such as Best Mobile Innovation for Emerging Markets and Best Use of Mobile for Climate Change bring the spotlight to important topics of conversation in our lives. They're a promising sign of the industry's work to be more inclusive and provide direction. Unquestionably, the jewel in the GLOMOs crown is the CTO's Choice award. Here, the winners of each category in the Mobile Technology section are judged by more than 20 CTOs of the world's leading telcos including NTT Docomo, Orange, SK Telecom, Vodafone and Verizon. It's an unrivalled opportunity to get in front of some of the most influential leaders and decision-makers in our industry regardless of the size of the business. It's worth the entry fee alone.

I urge companies of all sizes to consider taking part in next year's awards. The GSMA welcomes online submissions from all individuals and businesses from mid-September, requiring only that they use mobile connectivity to develop their products and services. I'm excited to see what advances the nominees and winners will deliver in the next few years. There's no better platform to commend businesses for their innovation and commitment to creating the next era of mobile technology. Join us on Wednesday 30 June 2021 at 12pm - 1pm (CEST) for our live special, streamed on Mobile World Live and LinkedIn, when we announce the 2021 winners of the GLOMOs! You can find out more information and see the shortlist at www.globalmobileawards.com

Given the challenges of the past 15 months, I believe we can all be thankful that we work in the technology industry. Many have been less fortunate than us. As the pandemic drags on, the tech sector can stand proud of how it has helped the world navigate the crisis.


FEATURE | ANALYST Q&A

Q&A r

Kester Mann, Director – Consumer and Connectivity, CCS Insight

Peter Jarich, Head, GSMA Intelligence

Diversity in the supply of network infrastructure remains a major concern, exacerbated by Huawei’s well-documented exclusion from some markets. Open RAN potentially offers a gateway to alternative providers, but is a solution that will take time to gain scale and maturity. Escalating geo-political tension between China and the West is another worry; it could threaten the development of global standards and economies of scale – so vital to the mobile industry.

Let’s put Covid-19 aside; the pandemic has been THE challenge for nearly every business, government, and individual in the world over the past year. The mobile industry was no different, and as Covid-19 recovery efforts ramp in 2021, the mobile industry will continue to feel its effects.

Revenue diversification, however, represents a different type of challenge. An existential challenge. The search for revenues beyond connectivity is nothing new. Yet, in the face of growing investment requirements (driven, in large part, by 5G), it has taken on new importance. A continued push into enterprise digital transformation (and attending services) represents the greatest hope.

What are the industry’s main challenges at the moment and what can be done to overcome them?

The telecoms industry responded admirably to Covid-19, with fixed-line and mobile networks standing firm despite surging and unpredictable demand, providing a lifeline to many households and businesses. The biggest lesson learned is the importance of flexibility across everything from network architecture to the service offering. Almost overnight, we saw a new need to dynamically control capacity, prioritise traffic, detect and predict new usage patterns, assist the most vulnerable customers and tailor offers to individuals or specific groups. With people now pretty much demanding reliable connectivity in all places and at all times, the need to be smart, adaptable and responsive has never been greater.

Only one? Let’s call it a tie between the importance of connectivity and the innovation imperative.

If we ever took the essentiality of access for granted, the vital role it played in keeping people productive, safe and connected to one another over the past year served as a very clear reminder. And, where many of us on the analyst front spent the past year explaining how a global pandemic accelerated social and technology changes that were already underway, we must all take away the lesson that moving early (and often) on innovation efforts is critical.

What's the biggest lesson the industry can learn from the pandemic?

This year will see 5G go mainstream in some pioneering markets as accelerating network roll-outs and affordable smartphones make the technology increasingly accessible. Already, total 5G traffic has surpassed 4G traffic in South Korea, while CCS Insight’s latest forecast predicts global 5G connections in 2021 will triple to 670 million. We’ll also see momentum for SA 5G, with up to 20 commercial deployments by the end of the year. Lastly, watch out for the emergence of new infrastructure suppliers, seeking to fill a growing void left by Huawei and capitalise on opportunities in open RAN.

At the start of the year, GSMA Intelligence outlined our expectations for the industry themes that would guide 2021. I’ve mentioned many already: enterprise digital transformation, operator revenue diversification, executing on the 5G opportunity, 5G era network transformation, navigating Covid-19 impacts, expanding the reach of the Internet.

My prediction?

We’ll see most reflected in the continuing development, and promotion, of private wireless. In one way or another, private wireless touches on so many of the technology innovations, business opportunities and structural challenges in mobile. This ensures it will be one of the most talked about, most impactful areas of market development.

What are your predictions for the mobile landscape this year – how will it change and what will be the driving forces behind the transformation?

The pandemic will inevitably bring a fresh slant to this year’s event – and a host of new hot topics. These will include the role of connectivity in Covid-19 recovery, efforts to narrow the digital divide, the future of work, opportunities in remote healthcare and education, and changes to the retail environment. Other major focus areas for MWC21 will include vendor diversity and open RAN, the transition to standalone (SA) 5G, the battle for the edge, artificial intelligence, telco and hyperscaler collaboration, private networks, security, and efforts around sustainability and the environment.

At year-end, we expect there will be more than two-fold the number of 5G connections compared with the end of Q1 2021. It’s not for nothing then that 5G will dominate the conversation at MWC21. But, it’s important to recognise the road to 1.8 billion 5G connections in 2025 will involve a myriad of near-term innovations (public cloud, edge networking, network virtualisation, spectrum sharing, AI) in support of myriad use cases (enterprise digital transformation, fixed wireless, mobile gaming). 5G may be the theme that unites these topics, but that’s only because so much fits under the 5G umbrella.

What will be the main themes at MWC21?

It’s a shame we can’t all meet in Barcelona as there’s no substitute for an in-person event; the network opportunities, the hands-on demos, the impromptu meetings and the vibe of the exhibition hall all contribute to making MWC one of the most valuable weeks of the year. But a hybrid format is the next best thing; it’ll bring together tens of thousands of people from across our industry and offer access to a host of informative sessions and high-profile speakers to those who can’t make the physical event. We’re all pretty used to doing things online now, so I’m sure it will be a success.

There is no denying that the industry has been eagerly anticipating a return to in-person events; the combination of education, networking, and socialising has been critical to helping events like MWC deliver so much value over the years. But there’s also no denying that integrating virtual components into an event helps to grow its reach and engage a broader audience.

Having extensively supported MWC Shanghai earlier in the year, my team saw first-hand how well hybrid events can operate when well-executed. Given the lessons learned, and a global stage, I’m only expecting greater things from MWC21.

How do you believe the hybrid format of the show will work and what is the importance of the return of in-person events?

Analyst Q&A



The premier destination for news, insight and intelligence for the global mobile industryMobile World Live is the industry’s most trusted media outlet for breaking news, special features, investigative reporting, and expert analysis of today’s biggest stories.

With our Mobile World Live Daily newsletter, you’ll enjoy:

• News updates from our global team of dedicated reporters

• Exclusive invites to live and digital events

• Complimentary access to highly-focused, industry-leading content that dives deep into the trends shaping our market

PLUS, we offer weekly updates covering the Apps, Asia, Devices, and Spanish-speaking markets that deliver the same invaluable insight and expert analysis as our Daily edition.

Subscribe now at www.mobileworldlive.com/subscribe


FEATURE | ANALYST Q&A

Q&A r

Benjamin Stanton, Research Manager, Canalys

Marta Pinto, Research Manager – European Mobile Devices, IDC

It is clear that supply of critical components, specifically silicon-based, will be bottlenecked until at least the end of 2021. At the production level, foundries are attempting to squeeze out extra capacity. But further down the chain, it will pose serious allocation challenges for vendors and channels. The devices and markets they choose to prioritise will have major ramifications for their performance. But unfortunately, prioritisation of lucrative countries will likely mean that emerging regions such as Africa will be particularly underserved for devices in 2021.

Security and privacy continue to be big topics. May it be at a corporate level, end-user level or in the operations space, these two topics will continue to be the main challenge for all companies in tech. After the uncertainty created by the pandemic, companies understood their fragility and therefore working in cooperation/coopetition is no longer the alternative or an experimental project. The impossibility of predicting how the supply chain and operations will work and the need to push for the acceleration of the digital transformation requires all players to combine forces. This behaviour should stick to the next post-pandemic phase as companies see the untapped value that these partnerships can bring for their business and for consumers.

What are the industry’s main challenges at the moment and what can be done to overcome them?

As Covid surged last year, the share price of almost every major technology company collapsed. But the industry has proved far more resilient than many feared, and the PC market in particular has seen a resurgence due to remote working. But this is not just an opportunity to sell more cameras and conferencing software. It is a chance for every company to reinvent the way it works. In the smartphone space, network operators are now comfortable running range review sessions virtually – a concept which was previously unheard of. As the world starts to overcome the pandemic, companies are reassessing their physical real estate needs and the nature of work may forever change.

The main lesson from the pandemic is the impossibility of controlling everything in a business. Accepting the level of uncertainty and the need to refocus to cater to the customer needs required a shift to a more flexible way of operating.

Another big lesson was that more can be done if the right tools are in place. Operations that were thought impossible to continue online were reinvented. Are they the same? No. But neither are the customer needs or the required business outcomes.

The size of companies like Google or Amazon suddenly appeared as the big elephants no regulator room could avoid. This was another lesson of the pandemic: tech moves way faster than regulation and adapting to that pace will require regulators to work closer to the big tech corporates.

What's the biggest lesson the industry can learn from the pandemic?

Last year I answered this question in three words: “more connected devices”. For 2021 I can do the same: “5G for everyone”. On the network side, we are seeing densification of urban 5G deployments, as well as a drive into rural location and smaller towns. And on the device side, we will see a flurry of affordable 5G smartphones from established brands and challenger brands alike, which will pave the way to it becoming a de facto standard. And as the user base increases, and the developer opportunity grows, we are set to see a new wave of applications and use cases.

Resiliency (in networks, operations, as a mind-set) will continue to be a key word in the mobile landscape. And in this concept, I am including security, business continuity, delivering solutions that match the customers’ needs, being flexible and creative.

The world will not become less mobile, on the contrary: the acceleration of the mobile trend will expand to more industries and areas of life, bringing the need to rethink how businesses interact with their customers. At the same time, as some companies will be too stiff to adapt, a huge number of others will experiment new business avenues so it will be a period of innovation and creativity!

What are your predictions for the mobile landscape this year – how will it change and what will be the driving forces behind the transformation?

It might sound strange, but for me, technology will not be the central theme at MWC. Covid will be the focus, without a doubt. But this is not necessarily a bad thing. It brings a refreshing human perspective to our industry, and the best exhibitors will be ones which can use technology to solve contemporary problems caused by the pandemic. Whether those solutions are based around mobile devices, 5G, IoT, augmented reality, graphene, infrastructure or any other technology – the common theme is that they must all be applicable and effective in driving us towards a ‘new normal’.

This year’s MWC agenda is almost a status check on how technology is shaping the world. It was the year where industries and countries had to recognise connectivity as the critical commodity to support economic activities, learning and monitoring the evolution of the crisis. Keeping the world connected and navigating supply chain uncertainties was suddenly a universal problem, and the cooperation between companies and governments to innovate and accelerate the deployment of tech-based solutions for lives improvement was key. So, at this year’s MWC all topics related to innovation in partnership, and how to accelerate the deployment of tech solutions across industries and borders, will be in the spotlight.

What will be the main themes at MWC21?

Firstly, hybrid events are not new, but they are significantly more common now. MWC21 is unprecedented, and I cannot predict how attendees will adapt. But I do know, from hosting the Canalys Channels Forums, that virtual attendees need to feel genuine engagement to feel a part of the show, and not just as if they are anonymously watching from afar. If the GSMA can achieve this, the show will retain immense value. Going forward, there will be some demographics which will always find it more valuable to attend virtually, if nothing else, just because it allows them to consume content on-demand and structure their time more efficiently. I hope future shows retain this and let attendees choose the best option for themselves.

The online environment is the possible current solution. Some events might continue to be delivered in this environment as they provide an experience of a final product, but for business purposes and hardware testing it can become less friendly.

Companies showcasing their products will have to be creative to keep the attendee’s attention as the busy environment will continue online and the competition for attention will be the same (if not increased). Easy shifts from one hall to another will add to the challenge and the user experience will be critical.

In another perspective, the full access to content will allow attendees to diversify their information consumption and smaller companies to increase opportunities to show their work. It is, in a way, levelling the playing field.

How do you believe the hybrid format of the show will work and what is the importance of the return of in-person events?

Analyst Q&A



Y O U R M W C 2 1 D I G I T A L B A D G E G U I D E

DOWNLOAD / OPEN THE MWC21 APP

LOG IN AND GO TO DIGITAL BADGE

YOU ARE READY TO ENTER MWC21 IF YOUR BADGE LOOKS LIKE THIS

Your username and password are the same as your registration account

This screen shows a valid digital badge. If you can see this screen, you are ready to enter the venue

CAN’T ACCESS YOUR BADGE?if you see any of these screens, follow the instructions below

Scan QR code below to log into your account and complete your registration

Upload your own negative rapid / PCR test result (free, up to 24 hrs processing time) or book a test at our venue test centre. Rapid tests available for €15

Read and accept the declaration statement daily

DAILY HEALTH DECLARATIONNO TEST RESULTREGISTRATION INCOMPLETE

AppGalleryEXPLORE IT ON

SPONSORED BY

Valid until 04/07/21 (End of day)Access Verified

ID #V5F3F3MJCU

Carolina PérezGSMA

My Digital Badge

100%9 41 AMSketch

100%9:41 AMSketch

My Digital Badge

Your registration is not yet complete.

Please log back into your account to complete the process.

All steps, including ID Validation must me complete before arriving at

MWC Barcelona.

100%9:41 AMSketch

Carolina Pérez

Choose one of the following options:

ID #V5F3F3MJCU

Your Digital Badge will be activated once your Health Test

results have been verified

My Digital Badge

Book your test

Upload your test result

100%9:41 AMSketch

My Digital Badge

1. I have not tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 14 days and I have not experienced any of the following symptoms of COVID-19 in the past 14 days:·Fever or chills·Cough·Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing·Unexplained fatigue·Muscle or body aches·Loss of taste or smell·Sore throat

2. I am not aware of anyone I have been in close contact (defined as 15 minutes or more at a distance of less than 2 metres) with, that has been diagnosed with, tested positive for, or experienced symptoms associated with Covid-19 in the last 14 days.

3. I am not required to isolate or quarantine as a result of having been exposed to a person with COVID-19 and I am not concerned that I may be sick with COVID-19.

4. I am not currently waiting on the results of a COVID-19 test.

5. I will comply with the Event’s Committed Community health and safety plan and agree that if (at any time during the period of the Event, including build up and dismantle days) I present any symptoms associated with COVID-19 (listed above), I will isolate myself and notify QuironHospitality at +34 901 123 456.

Please see https://www.mwcbarcelona.com/legal/privacy-policy for additional information

HEALTH DECLARATION

I certify that my responses are true and correct.

NEED MORE HELP? For further support, scan the QR code right for virtual assistance

Onsite Test Centre, located in Fira Gran Via, Hall 1

Required daily


Private LTE/5Gmust have for enterprises to succeedin digitalization

Nowadays, the main growing segment of mobile operators is the segment of subscribers, both humans and au-tomated devices, somehow related to B2B segment (enterprise customers). Enterprises and industry holdings have a need for speci昀c communication services. The corporate automation segment, M2M / IoT, is the largest consumer of wireless communication services in the near future, and very shortly the number of “non-human driven” devices will signi昀cantly exceed the number of ordinary subscribers. At the same time, for the IoT / M2M segment, security and reliable device authentication are critical. It is also important that for the optimal solution of automation tasks, tra�c processing should be close to the point of its generation. Note also that different IoT “Verticals” require completely different tra�c characteristics (bandwidth, delays, etc.).

A model called Private LTE / 5G or Campus Networks — a mobile communication network built and operated in the in-terests of enterprise customers — may be considered as an optimal for servicing such category of users.

The use cases for such networks can be very diverse:

• In Industry 4.0wirelessrobotsaremuchmoreconvenientin termsof recon昀guringproductionlines;roboticwarehousesandlogis-ticscomplexesallowthewidedeploymentof unmannedvehicles(forexample,forklifts).Allthesesolutionsrequirenetworkssup-potinghighwirelessdensity,lowlatency,andhighreliability;

• In such industries as power generation, power supply, transport,broadbandwirelesstechnologiesallowyouto effectivelyorganizemonitoring of devices and systems, as well as networkmanage-ment,forexample,whenintroducingsmartgridtechnologies;

• Broadbandwirelessradiocommunicationtechnologies(MCPTTservices)arein demandat anyproductionfacility;

• In a widevarietyof traditionalindustriesfacilitiesareoftenlocatedin remotelocationsandarenotcoveredby telecomsinfrastructure.At anyindustrialfacilities,theintroductionof AR/VRtechnologiesal-lowsto increasethee�ciencyandproductivityof employeeswhere-assmarttools/wearablesandintelligentvideosurveillanceallowsdramaticallyincreasethelevelof industrialsafety;

• At objectsof masspresenceof people(Airports,ports,hospitals,stadiums),theimplementationof PrivateLTE /5G allowsprovid-ingtheservicewiththerequiredlevelof accessandqualityto var-iouscategoriesof users.

Respondingto therequirementsof themoderntelecommuni-cationsmarket,PROTEIofferscomprehensivesolutionsforbuild-ingPrivateLTE /5G networks.ThecomplexprovidescompatibilitywitheNodeBandgNodeBof variousvendors,whichmakespossibleto organizetheconstructionof PrivateLTE/5Gnetworkstakingintoaccount thenationaland industryspeci昀csof regulation, as wellas takingintoaccountthepeculiaritiesof theobject.

Turn-key Private LTE bundle offered by PROTEI, provides theability to deploy thePrivateLTE /5G Option3 NSAnetworkcorein theoptimalway,withtheabilityto scalefromhundredsto tensof thousandsof devicesandsubscribers.

The composition of the complex depends on the target set of services provided, and may include:

• Basicsetof platformsforbuildingthePrivateLTE /5G NSAcore(SGW,MME,HSS,PGW);

• PolicyManagementPlatform(PCRF);

• A platformfordeeppackettra�cinspection(DPI);

• Platformforvoiceservices(IMS);

• BroadbandRadioCommunicationPlatform(MCPTT);

• ConnectivityManagement /M2Mplatform.

Theexpertiseandexperiencegainedwhileworkingwithtraditionaltelecomoperators,combinedwithrelyingon ourowndevelopments,ensure effective implementation andmaintenance of the complex,as wellas theabilityto adaptit to theneedsof customers.

PROTEI Pro昀lePROTEIisaninternationaltelecommunicationinfrastructureven-

doroperatinginRussia,EasternEurope,CentralAsia,LatinAmerica,theMiddleEastandNorthAfrica,havingaproventrackrecordinthemarketfrom2002.

UnderPROTEIbrandwepresentreliable,costeffective,carrier-classsolutions.PROTEIproductlinecoversallneedsof3G/4G/LTEoperators includingMVNO/MVNE.PROTEIservesmore than400renownedcustomersinover30countriestocater200 millionsub-scribersworldwide.

Tel.:+7(812)449-47-27E-mail:[email protected]

Web:www.protei.com

Hall 3 Booth 3K1


THALES | ESIM

Enhancing customer eSIM journeys with discovery services

By Fabiola Frantzis, marketing manager for connectivity solutions, Thales

A central part of this process is the use of Root Discovery Services to allow one click subscription downloads. We

speak to Thales’ marketing manager for connectivity solutions Fabiola Frantzis (pictured) about this technology and how it can benefit telecom operators. What advantages does the Root Discovery Service offer to the market? Fabiola Frantzis: Root Discovery Service (discovery service) is a way to download subscriptions into consumer devices which have eSIM functionality as an alternative to existing methods such using QR codes.

It was designed as a universal service across providers, so when an OEM implements this feature in a device they can have peace of mind it will be compatible with any operator in any market supporting the service. This eliminates the need for separate integration processes with each telecom operator to download subscriptions.

The telecom operator can also be assured they will be able to download subscriptions to any compatible device, reducing integration efforts and cutting time spent onboarding.

In terms of experience for the end user, it’s a very intuitive system. A few seconds after powering on the device they are served with a notification to download a subscription, allowing them to get started in a single click.

A discovery service is also a good option for IoT devices, which can be constrained because they are often small and don’t have a way to scan a QR code. With this new method, these IoT devices can be issued with profiles without needing a camera, interface or the capability to download an application.

What is the status of this technology in the market and how are current consumer and enterprise trends likely to impact this? In the market today there are two different discovery services being offered.

One was launched commercially by the GSMA powered by Thales technology in

2020, having been used in pilots since 2017. The idea is for the entire mobile ecosystem to use it, ensuring all operators and device makers can rely on interoperable systems.

This platform has been out there commercially for a few months and, although we are definitely still in the early days, there are already tier-one telecom operators using it commercially. These early adopters are mostly in North America and Europe, but there are many others waiting for an increased number of compatible devices to become available then they will introduce this method.

In the meantime, operators are continuing to use current provisioning technologies, typically this is a QR code or carrier app.

Further operator adoption will come as device makers increase their compatibility with the technology. Bit-by-bit, as OEMs continue to launch devices and as tier-one telecom operators support the service, the rest of the market will get on board.

Telecom operators wanting to support devices from this brand need to be prepared to use the OEM’s service, while using the GSMA’s version for the rest of their devices. Without an adequate solution in place, this can be a challenge.

However, with the right solution this provides telecom operators with a competitive advantage as they can maximise the reach of eSIM capable devices in the market and better service their customers.

How does this new method of provisioning change the user experience and how does this differ from alternatives and previously used methods? Currently a QR code is the most common way of downloading eSIM subscriptions. This system works well and requires users to scan a code but, while this is very effective, use of a discovery service offers the customer a one click journey and also widens the types of devices able to be on-boarded to include those unable to scan a code.

With a discovery service the user can either submit their eUICC Identifier (EID) or the telecom operator scans it from the box of device to download the subscription.

Telecom operators today are very focused on developing digital channels for customers, they want to offer a way for them to purchase a subscription and just start using it.

Both a QR code and discovery service offer this digital journey, but the difference is that when the operator is reliant on a physical QR code they will have to ship or deliver the physical code to the end user. This could create a delay of a few days before the customer can start using the subscription.

However, using a digital QR code or discovery service, a subscription download can be activated right away. This is a big change to the user experience and allows the process to take place in one click. Importantly this is another tool in operators’ armory of flexible options to get customers started.

Could this technology be used also in IoT devices, and if so, how does its application change the way connectivity can be provisioned here? This solution can certainly be used for IoT devices.

The big trend we’re seeing in the IoT market is device makers and other players moving to the use of consumer specifications rather than M2M eSIM protocols for deployments. This is partly as they consider existing M2M specifications to be a bit costly and complex for their market.

Although the consumer specification doesn’t cover the complete needs of the IoT market (for example it doesn’t allow for pushing a profile into the device), we expect this to be used as a temporary measure before migrating to specifications currently being developed by the GSMA for IoT.

In the IoT specification that’s currently being defined, the discovery service is being proposed as one of the standard methods for downloading subscriptions.

What does Thales offer in this market and what are your key competitive advantages here?

Thales is very experienced in the eSIM subscription management market. We have deployed more than 200 platforms worldwide and we are also the ones providing the discovery service to the GSMA so the operators using it are already using a Thales platform.

Based on this we have built Thales SMDS Connect, a service for operators wanting to support all current discovery services and future releases. It reduces effort for telecom operators as it avoids the need for them to make changes in their IT system each time they want to support a new discovery service, and from knowing which discovery service to use for each profile download.

Currently, as previously discussed, there are two discovery services being used. Without the Thales offer telecom operators would have to make changes into their internal system to be able to download subscriptions to both.

Our service is like an intelligent router able to identify the request for a downloadable subscription, simplifying things for the service provider which only needs to modify their IT system once. From that moment Thales will deal with integration with each OEM or enterprise launching their own discovery service. Thales intelligent router will route each profile download request to the correct discovery service.

This means a shorter time to market for the telecom operator, fewer integration costs and peace of mind that the operator is able to download a subscription into any device using any discovery service.

We also offer private SMDS for any OEM or any telecom operator which wants to have their own discovery service. Thales is already providing this and is able to supply to any other player wanting a private system.

With these offers we are covering all market needs in relation to eSIM Discovery Services and allow operators to stay ahead of the curve in enabling users to quickly download digital subscriptions to their devices.

With eSIM subscriptions set to become the standard in the coming years, telecom operators are increasingly looking to ease users towards a complete digital journey.



ANALYSIS | SUSTAINABILITY

Green is the new black: good climate = good business = good climate

Energy sustainability and decarbonisation has rapidly emerged as a business priority in the telecoms sector over the past 12-18

months. This move is in line with the broader ESG (environmental, social and governance) investment movement, from which a previously niche contingent of activist shareholders have been joined by large institutional investors in redesigning the criteria for capital allocations under the general umbrella of sustainability.

Efforts to improve energy efficiency by telecoms operators have been triggered by two main factors: one is external (climate change); the other is sector-based (cost reductions). • Climate: Private sector involvement and

leadership from certain sectors has become a driver for action to meet the targets enshrined in the 2015 Paris Agreement. Many telco operators have laid down public targets for carbon reduction pathways with a path to net zero, generally ranging from 2030 (for the ultra-ambitious) to 2050 where a commitment has been made.

• Costs: Energy comprises 20–40% of total operating expenditure on average and is therefore a prime cost line for reduction. Telecoms is fundamentally based on infrastructure scale. In good times, this generates positive operating leverage, meaning revenues rise against a (mostly) fixed cost base. However, the opposite is also true. In periods of low/negative revenue growth, fixed costs are exposed, with resulting pressures on cashflow and longer term investments. This has been the reality in the US, Europe and other high-income countries since around 2015 when LTE pricing premiums were competed away, placing a brake on revenue growth but with network maintenance costs and (later) 5G investments coming online.

This is/will be compounded by the rising proportion of 4G/5G customers (depending on which country you take) and their propensity to use more data, with consequent direct impacts on network energy consumption.

OVERCOMING THE 5G PARADOX Investments to ameliorate these issues and make networks more efficient have become an industry priority – this is, of course, a good thing. We also know from our latest survey that an overwhelming majority (87%) of operators rate energy efficiency and sustainability as a priority in their network transformation objectives.

However, the industry and its supply chain faces an awkward paradox: energy-saving measures built into the 5G standard along with wider efficiency upgrades – which drive the notion of ‘green’ networks – may actually be offset by rising data traffic, resulting in overall higher levels of energy consumption. Several technologies and mitigation strategies to counter this challenge are now being implemented: Overall network planning • Smarter placement of sites to maximise

user density • Retirement of legacy 2G and 3G networks

that are more power hungry than LTE or 5G • Tower sharing to reduce site overlap Base station level improvements • AI-induced base station ‘sleep states’

when inactive. This is an engineering achievement of the 5G New Radio standard versus LTE networks which are always-on to stay in touch with the core

• Lithium-ion batteries rather than lead acid • Liquid air cooling systems and smarter use

of air conditioning • General simplification of site set up Fuel sources • Shift to renewables on or off-grid, away

from fossil fuels The latter factor is perhaps the fastest moving. BT, for example, already uses 100% renewables in its UK network operations. Vodafone, Telefónica and Verizon – among others – have renewable targets in place on ambitious timelines. This has been helped by increased liquidity in renewables trading and the presence of longer term purchase contracts.

OUTLOOK AND COMPETITIVE IMPLICATIONS The practical business and reputational value associated with going green underlines why sustainability has moved from the realm of CSR to boardroom priority. Network investment sentiment is a further lead indicator that re-designs will have energy efficiency at their heart over the next 10 years, with a general west to east, north to south phasing. As with global efforts to combat climate change, measures to improve efficiencies within telecoms are a shared challenge. Consensus is evidenced by the fact a majority market share position of operators have jointly pledged to achieve net-zero status by 2050. We have also undertaken joint work with 7 operator groups to benchmark energy

consumption levels to provide a starting point for measuring progress over time. However, consensus does not equate with unanimity. Operators in emerging markets and heavily oil-reliant countries face operational and political challenges in moving to renewables. Industry efforts to stimulate this change should be couched with these considerations in mind. In the supply chain, each of the big four equipment suppliers – Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia and ZTE – has invested significantly in energy-saving R&D in the pre-commercial phase of 5G so that live deployments now feature this functionality as a key selling point and competitive differentiator. However, 5G take-up is still nascent, even in the US and China where it is being pushed hardest. The long game means proof points from operators on actual savings realised from 5G kit deployments from a given vendor in real life (not the lab) will be the bedrock of credibility. Demonstrating successful savings

will also play well for partnerships with operators in joint bids on industrial contracts for products like 5G private networks. This matters because much of the best-practice sharing in decarbonisation in telecoms networks will come through joint-venture commercial agreements and alliances. The bottom line is that sustainability is a paradigm shifting issue here to stay. We watch with great interest. To find out more on our Telecoms Energy Benchmarking research, visit data.gsmaintelligence.com/research to download a copy of the report. We plan to extend the energy benchmarking work into a multi-year endeavour to track consumption over time. If you would like to join our working group as a participating telecom operator, please contact Tim Hatt ([email protected]), Emanuel Kolta ([email protected]) or Steven Moore ([email protected]).

ABOUT GSMA INTELLIGENCE

GSMA Intelligence is the definitive source of global mobile operator data, analysis and forecasts, and publisher of authoritative industry reports and research. Our data covers every operator group, network and MVNO in every country worldwide – from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. It is the most accurate and complete set of industry metrics available, comprising tens of millions of individual data points, updated daily. GSMA Intelligence is relied on by leading operators, vendors, regulators, financial institutions and third-party industry players, to support strategic decision-making and long-term investment planning. The data is used as an industry reference point and is frequently cited by the media and by the industry itself. www.gsmaintelligence.com @GSMAi [email protected]


Author: Tim Hatt, Head of Research, GSMA Intelligence

Vodafone (down 50% by 2025)

Telefónica (down 70% by 2030)

Verizon (down 50% by 2025)

-80%

-70%

-60%

-50%

-40%

-30%

-20%

-10%

0%

10%

2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030

Red

uctio

n in

CO

2 em

issi

ons

rela

tive

to b

asel

ine

year

Vodafone Telefónica Verizon Source: GSMA Intelligence

Renewables are also feeding through to drive down CO2 Operator progress against CO2 emissions reduction targets has been solid so far

Climate solidarity and costs are behind recent telco sector momentum in green networks.


www.moelis.com

Moelis & Company is proud to partner with GSMA for their annual MWC Barcelona event

Moelis & Company is a leading global independent investment bank that provides innovative, unconflictedstrategic advice to a diverse client base. We assist our clients in achieving their strategic goals by offering compre-hensive,globally integrated financial advisory services across all major in-dustry sectors. Our dynamic advisory practice supports clients through all phases of the business cycle through expert capabilities in M&A, Recapi-talization & Restructuring, Capital Markets and Financial Institution Ad-visory. We serve our clients from 22 geographic locations in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.



ANALYSIS | SPECTRUM

By Dennisa Nichiforov-Chuang, Lead Analyst, Spectrum, GSMA Intelligence and Peter Jarich, Head of GSMA Intelligence

What makes spectrum appropriate, or attractive, for 5G? Beyond being affordable, it should include low-

(sub 1 GHz), mid- (1 to 10 GHz) and high-bands (10+ GHz) in order to balance coverage and capacity and to support a wide range of use cases, beyond meeting increased consumer mobile demand. Ideally, it should also be harmonised, with (near) universal availability across markets, in order to drive economies of scale for infrastructure and devices, as well as roaming opportunities. Based on data from GSMA Intelligence’s Spectrum Navigator database, the role of harmonisation is very clearly on display in the early days of 5G; over 50% of 5G launches up through the end of Q1 were supported by the 3.5 GHz range. While the availability of the 3.5 GHz range spectrum might not qualify as ‘universal’, with

only 32 countries having assigned spectrum in this frequency range for now, its importance in fuelling 5G cannot be denied. Perhaps more importantly, it raises the question of other bands that can perform a similar role.

600 / 700 MHZ Low-band spectrum has often been referred to as “beachfront property” given its ability to cover wide swathes of land and penetrate into buildings, with relatively limited infrastructure. That comes, of course, with limits on capacity. Regardless, momentum looks to be picking up in Europe and it is reasonable to expect this to continue as 5G capacity strategies are complemented by coverage strategies. Twenty countries globally have already assigned this spectrum band and in Europe alone, 13 countries have announced plans to release this band in 2021.

2.1 / 2.6 GHZ Edging into mid-band territory, the 2.1 GHz and 2.6 GHz bands account for about 17% of 5G network launches (excluding those where the band was not disclosed). Some of the most widely available spectrum on a global scale, with assignments across more than 200 countries, 5G is benefitting from re-farming efforts, providing lessons for further re-farming efforts as additional operators look to roll out 5G absent any newly assigned mid-band spectrum.

3.8 – 4.2 GHZ Although not yet identified for IMT, there is a clear need for additional mid-band spectrum for mobile services. Some countries have shown growing support for this range to fulfil the 5G requirements.

4.8 GHZ Looking into the future, the 4800 MHz to 4990 MHz spectrum is a WRC-23 agenda item across all regions with a wide channel

size supporting lower network density and increased affordability. Although its take-up is still a few years away, three 5G networks have already been launched in the spectrum, setting the stage for more.

6 GHZ The 6 GHz band (5925MHz to 7125MHz) has been getting a lot of attention, particularly with an eye towards WRC-23, where its use for IMT technologies will be on the agenda. In the meantime, different countries are pursuing an array of strategies for its allocation, including licensed and unlicensed use: US supports unlicensed use across the band; China supports the entire band for licensed 5G; Europe has opted for unlicensed use in the lower portion of the band (below 6425MHz). Unlicensed usage doesn’t preclude 5G, but a diverse set of regulations would obviously impact how operators might leverage it.

MMWAVE. For years, the notion of mmWave-based mobile services seemed more akin to science fiction than a viable business offer. Circa 2021, a combination of network innovations, device innovations, and bandwidth demands have joined forces to make mmWave 5G a reality – in a handful of markets. The 28 GHz band accounts for the majority of launches to date, but more assignments beyond the

seven countries that have already released this spectrum need to take place before any level of universality can be assured. Against this backdrop, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that progress is being made at harmonising spectrum for 5G, supporting device, network and service ecosystems. The bad news is that this progress will take time; spectrum re-farming requires coordination with previous generations of technologies (and their users), and planning for making spectrum available is also time consuming (including more to come at WRC-23). How do we keep 5G momentum rolling in the meantime?

HERE, THERE IS MORE GOOD NEWS. While there is no substitute for globally harmonised spectrum, innovations like Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) make it easier to re-use spectrum resources, even as they continue to support legacy technologies. And where there was once a point of pride to own a quad-band phone, the bands supported in flagship 5G smartphones easily number in the dozens. Combined with open radio initiatives which could drive infrastructure scale, the prospects for 5G momentum look great… even as we wait for new, universal, 5G spectrum bands to materialise. For more spectrum trends and insights, visit www.gsmaintelligence.com/spectrum

As we have called out many times this past year, the mobile industry is now firmly in the 5G Era. With more than 150 operators having launched commercial services by the end of Q1 2021, we are no longer waiting for 5G to arrive. And, as we look to scale today’s 5G networks and services, the availability of appropriate spectrum is key.

ABOUT GSMA INTELLIGENCE

GSMA Intelligence is the definitive source of global mobile operator data, analysis and forecasts, and publisher of authoritative industry reports and research. Our data covers every operator group, network and MVNO in every country worldwide – from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. It is the most accurate and complete set of industry metrics available, comprising tens of millions of individual data points, updated daily. GSMA Intelligence is relied on by leading operators, vendors, regulators, financial institutions and third-party industry players, to support strategic decision-making and long-term investment planning. The data is used as an industry reference point and is frequently cited by the media and by the industry itself. www.gsmaintelligence.com @GSMAi [email protected]

600/700 2100

Other

2500/2600 3500/3700

5G Network Launches By Frequency Band (up to Q1 2021)

What’s the Next ‘Universal’ 5G Spectrum Band?


Discover how the GSMA is transforming the mobile industry

Join us in hall 3, STAND 3K63 to learn more about the GSMA

Unlocking the power of connectivity so that people, industry and society thrive

Forging the future of connectivity through the GSMA Foundry

Delivering data, resources and tools to help your business thrive

Tackling climate change and reducing global digitalinequality

Unlocking the full potential of mobile through advocacy and public policy

Shaping the next chapterin mobile with GSMA Membership


MWC21 Barcelona brings industry back to business

Documents

Transcript of MWC21 Barcelona brings industry back to business