Making Money From 5G and Importance of AI Were Big Themes at Mobile World Congress
The recent Mobile World Congress came at “a critical juncture” for the wireless industry, said Prakash Sangam, principal of Tantra Analyst, during a Wireless Communications Alliance webinar Thursday. CTIA Chief Technology Officer Tom Sawanobori cited AI as another prominent theme at the GSMA's trade show in Barcelona earlier this month.
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The first phase of 5G deployment is finished in leading countries, Sangam said. “People are not sure yet what the next phase is going to look like,” especially 5G-advanced. There are many questions about when 6G will arrive and what it will mean for consumers, he said.
Companies are still asking “how to monetize 5G and start getting a good return on investments" that operators have made and what the use cases will be, Sangam said. There was also some excitement around GSMA’s application programmable interface initiative (see 2402260054), he added.
There were “a lot of questions on where we do we go from here … at a very high level,” Sangam said. “There were some answers, but not many.” Telecom revenue is flat despite growing network investments, and GSMA officials and carrier executives were “talking about how we come out of this logjam." The move to virtual radio access networks (RAN) is happening, but open RAN involving multiple vendors is “still at the starting stage.”
Sawanobori said, “AI really was everywhere” at the trade show as well. Speakers discussed AI in network operations and for “customer care and support.” There was “a lot on AI use cases, both for consumers and for different enterprise applications.”
AI seemed to get more discussion than 6G, Sawanobori said. “There was a little bit about 6G" and how "it’s coming in the 2030 time frame.” There was also some discussion around “integrated sensing and communications” and using the network to detect and track drones, he said. He recounted hearing the same questions as Sangam on 5G and how it will be monetized by carriers.
Sawanobori also saw “a lot of excitement” around non-terrestrial networks (NTNs), with several announcements timed to the Mobile World Congress. “The real breakthrough” for consumers is that they can use their existing smartphones to get text messages in remote areas where terrestrial coverage doesn’t exist or is “spotty,” he said. Each of the major carriers is positioning itself to offer NTN coverage, and “it becomes a competitive issue.” NTNs remain “more of a niche use case, but it’s an important niche use case.”
Sangam questioned whether, from an economic standpoint, NTN is viable now for carriers. Unserved areas are that way because providers can’t figure out how to make a return on their investments by providing service, he said. “That will still be the case with satellite.” But as an “add-on” to terrestrial service, NTN “is catching on.” He predicted satellite service eventually will cover large areas of countries like India.
Both speakers said they didn’t hear much discussion in Barcelona about shared spectrum, despite the focus in the U.S. and Europe. Sawanobori noted the U.K. examination of the hybrid use of 6 GHz by carriers and for Wi-Fi (see 2502130058). “As a conference theme, I didn’t hear much of that."