MWC – Mobile World Congress

March 3, 2023 – 4:09 p.m

Valéria Carrete, Chief Revenue Officer at R2U and Chief Metaverse Officer at Converge, and Giovanni Abeni, Head of Technology and Operations at R2U and Converge

The relevant part of the global mobile industry gathered at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023. In addition to the knowledge of technological advances that should affect our lives in the coming years, the debates in Barcelona were dominated by the monetization of the 5G network, evidence of the conflict between telecommunications and entertainment companies.

More than €600 billion has been spent on network deployment in the last 10 years, and telecommunications companies face the challenge of continuing to offer high-quality and high-speed services while consumers want to pay less and less.

This dilemma partly explains the differences between large telecommunications and entertainment companies. The co-CEO of Netflix, for example, argued that the company’s margins are significantly lower than those of major telcos and suggested that they pay entertainment companies to produce content to increase users’ use of the network. Communications companies believe that, as big consumers of bandwidth, the entertainment industry should also pay some of the infrastructure costs.

Among the launches, it is worth mentioning the GSM Open Gateway, an initiative that will provide developers with universal access to operator networks, with the aim of developing a strong ecosystem.

As it should be, the metaverse was also highlighted at the event, with a focus on the important role of mobile devices in promoting mass adoption of the technology, which is still quite limited today.
To celebrate the industry’s achievements, the GLOMO Awards awarded Apple as the best smartphone manufacturer and Britain’s Bullitt as the pinnacle, reinforcing the industry’s interest in satellite connectivity.

As usual, the event was also marked by the launch of devices from all brands, along with the announcement of the facelift of the Nokia brand for the network infrastructure services unit.

Brazil was present at MWC 2023 with 20 startups that presented their innovative solutions. We take this opportunity to thank the companies that supported us, such as Sofitex and Brasil IT+.

Thanks for joining us at MWC 2023! We are already ready for next year and promise more innovation and technology. See you at MWC 2024!