Highlights from the World Mobile Congress, , Spain

Barcelona – 02 March 2017 - The World Mobile Congress is currently underway in Barcelona. The World Mobile Congress is the world’s largest gathering for the mobile industry, organized by the GSMA and held in the mobile world capital, Barcelona from the 27th Feb-2nd March 2017. The Congress is themed “The Next Element” which is in anticipation on what is to come, the next technologies, next societies and how the next technologies like 4. and 5G is set to improve our lives. Attending the Congress, Tim Ekandjo, from MTC gives an overview of the 2017 Congress. The mobile industry continues to be characterized by high levels of growth and opportunity, and as the industry becomes more dynamic, the opportunities within it increase in equal amount, as do the challenges. In 2017, the Mobile World Congress conference programme will provide an essential, in-depth coverage of the contemporary and future mobile industry, highlighting specific areas of growth and opportunity.

Kicking things off on Monday was , which has announced a trio of new smartphones. Easily the standout, however, is the seriously impressive Sony Eperia XZ Premium. What's so impressive, you ask? Well, it has a 4K screen that supports HDR as well. It won't work in 4K all the time, but when you download 4K HDR content from the likes of Amazon Prime Video, you'll get the full resolution on offer, which strikes us as rather natty.

Korean electronics giant might announce a new tablet and showcase its next flagship smartphone, the S8, at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Sunday. An invite for the company’s big event detailed what appears to be a tablet — the Galaxy Tab S3, according to FCC filings and a deluge of rumors, has been sent out. The slate, a follow up to 2015’s Tab S2, is believed to sport a 9.6-inch 2048 x 1536 screen powered by a Snapdragon 820. HMD-Global promoted launched some new smartphones at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The company launched the new series 6, 5 and 3. All the phones will run Android Nougat and will come with the Google Assistant. The company also launched at least four smartphones which will include the erstwhile Nokia 3310, e series, a new P1 and the global edition of the D6 that was a huge success in China. Most of the attention was however around the new generation 3310. It is not a smartphone. It supports 2.5G with a special browser. It has a 2MP camera and a 2.4 screen. Battery life is of course brilliant with a month standby and 22 hours talk time.

After TCL and BlackBerry kickstarted MWC Barcelona with the launch of the new KEYone, with the familiar Blackberry keyboard and Android OS. It features a 4.5-inch, 3:2-aspect screen and BlackBerry's signature physical keyboard below it. There's also a 3505mAh battery, 12- megapixel rear camera and it's all powered by the mid-range Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor.

LG has just launched the new G6 smartphone with a 5.7-inch display in a 5.2-inch body. LG has been trying hard to get back in the smartphone race but is yet to make enough headway to challenge rivals like Samsung and HTC. It expects that the new edge-to-edge display will help it capture new market share. Not to be outdone, used MWC 2017 to unveil two new phones and a smartwatch. The and P10 Plus are an evolution of last year's P9. They still have cameras engineered by Leica, and Huawei has persisted with the two-camera combination with one colour (RGB) sensor and one monochrome one. This time around the monochrome is 20-megapixel, while the RGB sensor is 12-megapixel

Alcatel launched its customary raft of new devices, with the Alcatel A5 LED the most interesting of the lot. It's a modular device pitched at a similar price point to the Moto G5, with the key difference being that it offers a range of swappable LED back covers – one lights up to display colourful notifications, another comes with a kickstand/speaker combo, and yet another packs a 3,000mAh battery boost.

Waverly Labs showed off a prototype of an AirPod-style wireless headset that is capable of translating conversations in real time. The magic behind the Pilot Translation Earpiece is found in Waverly's app on a paired iPhone or Android device, which uses machine learning to translate audio recorded by the earpiece and transmit it to your friend's earpiece or app.

The translator currently supports French, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and English. The Pilot Translation Earpiece will be available later this year for $299 (converted, that works out to about £240 or AU$390).

Also get much attention at the Congress was IoT (Internet of Things), and how mobile operators are gearing themselves to handle all the connected devices. Words like smart metering, SmartHomes and the connected, and autonomous cars are just a few highlights.

MTC has a key interest in following global trends and technologies as they are launched and we will ensure that we continue to think global and act local by bringing Namibians only the best technologies, concluded Ekandjo.

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About MTC Namibia:

Established in 1995, Mobile Telecommunications Limited (MTC) is a mobile telecommunications company in Namibia providing cellular access. It is currently the largest mobile operator in Namibia with over two million active subscribers. To know more please visit, http://www.mtc.com.na