BARCELONA–As we’re all acutely aware, Mobile World Congress 2020 was cancelled due to concerns around the spread of coronavirus. However, a small handful of largely journalists and analysts came to Barcelona anyway to try to make hay as it were, including two members of the RCR Wireless News editorial staff.
Why’d we do it? Some say it’s because there was still some pretty decent content opportunities because locally-based company reps generously made themselves available. Or maybe it was because the pop-up Barcelona Tech Spirit Days presented some interesting and telecom-relevant sessions. It could be because put down a non-refundable deposit at Enigma, a restaurant I’ve been trying to get into for two years, or because I have a concerningly low regard for my own health and well-being. We’ll likely never know.
But despite all that, it was a busy news week with significant announcements coming from all corners of the telecom ecosystem. If you had to pin down a theme, I’d say it’s what’s next for 5G now that we’ve got enhanced mobile broadband pretty well figured out–how do we chart a course forward toward creating vertical value with private networks, network slicing, real-time data analysis and action, and so forth.
Our editorially team at RCR, as well as our sister properties Enterprise IoT Insights and In-Building Tech have provided extensive coverage of most major announcements the past few days and will continue to do so. But if you’d like some quick recaps, including great interviews with Airspan’s Damiano Coletti on open RAN and the vendors work with Rakuten, and with Qualcomm’s Lorenzo Casaccia on what to expect from Rel. 16 and Rel. 17, I’ve got you. See below.
