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For more information, visit gsmaintelligence.com Follow GSMA Intelligence on Twitter: @GSMAi Executive summary Topics MWC 2018: taking the temperature of the mobile ecosystem The 2018 edition of Mobile World Congress welcomed more than 1 Future networks............4 107,000 visitors to Barcelona for the biggest event in the mobile industry. While the temperatures outside were unusually chilly, 2 Consumer.........................6 what was hot inside the halls was less surprising, with 5G and AI dominating. There was also lively, sometimes heated, discussion on 3 Emerging tech................8 how to ensure mobile can continue to fuel innovation, transform 4 industry and impact people’s lives for the better. Internet of Things.........10 5 Policy and regulation...12 We present our key messages from MWC over the next few pages, but several broader themes run across much of this analysis and point the way for the industry as it continues to transform: • Getting real: 5G has been gathering momentum for some time, and we’re now seeing concrete deployment plans alongside more practical demonstrations of use cases. But there was also something of a reality check around the inherent challenges of evolving the network for 5G to meet the needs of vertical industries. Meanwhile, in IoT, there’s recognition that the business case actually revolves around addressing specific needs rather than simply providing connectivity. • Getting together: The need for collaboration ran across several streams this year. Examples included alliances to serve vertical industries; partnerships to bring solutions to the expanding smart home market; and industry-wide collaboration to bring safe and reliable smart-city deployments. Co-operation continues to be key across and beyond the ecosystem. • Getting better: Creating a better future was the theme of MWC18. Industry leaders provided ample inspiration on how connectivity can create new drivers of economic growth, and how the industry can help make communities healthier and stronger. But the debate continues as to how to ensure the right investment climate and regulatory environment to underpin such development going forward. 3 • GSMA Intelligence Mobile World Congress 2018 wrap-up 1 Future networks: 5G early deployment plans With the first commercial 5G launches scheduled for the end of 2018 Viewpoint: US looks set to be a leading market in the 5G era and into 2019, 5G once again dominated the floors of this year’s MWC. US operators were by far the most vocal on 5G at MWC this year, While some of the same concerns around regulation, investment and with T-Mobile and Sprint taking to the stage to outline their initial use cases were evident, we also saw operators shed light on their plans, detailing the various cities across the US that they will be early deployment plans. This served to reinforce which markets are targeting in early deployments. This follows announcements earlier leading the pack, and those that are following. in the year by both AT&T and Verizon, who both affirmed their desire to be the first to launch 5G services in the market. In FCC Chairman Key points Ajit Pai mobile operators have an advocate. Pai used his keynote to • T-Mobile outlined plans to roll out 5G-ready equipment across announce two high-frequency spectrum auctions at the end of this 30 US cities in 2018, with launch scheduled for 2019. year, and will follow that up over the coming months to propose how • Sprint named the first six cities where it will roll out Massive C-band spectrum will be made available. MIMO during 2018, as a “bridge” to its 5G launch in the first half of 2019. The hyper-competitive nature of the US market at this key juncture • US FCC chairman Ajit Pai announced a desire to hold two high- bodes well for the rapid deployment of 5G services. T-Mobile’s CTO frequency spectrum auctions (in 24 GHz and 28 GHz bands) by Neville Ray indicated that during 2018 it would be deploying 5G in 30 the end of 2018. cities using both low- and high-frequency spectrum, while Sprint’s • Telstra outlined its early 5G roadmap, which included details CTO John Saw revealed that it will be rolling out Massive MIMO of further evolution of its 4G network ahead of its 5G launch in across its 2.5 GHz footprint, reaching tens of thousands of sites in 2019. 2019 – all of which will be software upgradeable to 5G. This reaffirms GSMA Intelligence’s aggressive forecast for the market – that half of • Swisscom announced plans to launch mobile 5G services by the US connections (excluding cellular IoT) will be utilising 5G networks end of 2018. by 2025. • Huawei CEO Ken Hu said the company had signed 5G memorandums of understanding with 45 operators in Asia, By contrast, European operators are behind the curve in their 5G Europe and North America, and is already conducting pre- intent. Beyond Swisscom aggressively targeting 2018 for launch, the commercial trials with 30 mobile players. bulk of European operators are still announcing trials – for example, Deutsche Telekom’s “virtual fibre” (fixed wireless access). Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri pulled no punches when he claimed that “while the Nordic countries are also moving quickly, operators in Europe are being the slowest and we don’t expect any real progress here with 5G in the short term.” 4 • GSMA Intelligence Mobile World Congress 2018 wrap-up 1 Future networks: enabling 5G use cases As the industry ramps up for impending 5G deployments, an elephant Viewpoint: Considerable complexity remains in enabling new 5G in the room remains – the need to enable credible enterprise use use cases cases, to justify incremental 5G investment. A key component of this Around the halls of MWC, there were plenty of 5G demonstrations, is the growing “softwarisation” of the network, with MWC this year but little substance to suggest that use cases over and above those showing growing momentum behind the drive for open network linked to enhanced mobile broadband will hit the mainstream anytime architectures, the need to apply AI and machine learning across the soon. Though there were encouraging developments of practical 5G network, and the imperative to build security into the 5G standard. use cases, a myriad of challenges needs to be overcome before they become a reality. Key points • A group of operators, vendors and vertical industry players announced the formation of the 5G Slicing Association, which The talk this year was of the need to build more intelligent networks will look to address vertical industry requirements, build use to handle not only the growth in traffic that 5G will bring, but also cases and business models, and work with standards bodies. the varying requirements of each packet that hits the network – from those serving connected IoT devices to low latency use cases. This • AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telekom, NTT DoCoMo and incorporates a range of capabilities not specific to 5G but crucial to its Orange announced the creation of the ORAN Alliance, a development, including software-defined networking, virtualisation, combination and extension of the objectives of the C-RAN edge computing, and the ability to implement AI and machine Alliance and xRAN Forum. learning within the network. Nokia’s CTO of Mobile Networks, Henri • A group of UK universities demonstrated the world’s first Tervonen, claimed “AI needs to be in every node of the network” end-to-end 5G network, highlighting the capabilities of the to ensure resilience and to provide vital applications such as self- technology. healing and repair. • Huawei announced the first commercial end-to-end terminal device to meet the 3GPP standard for 5G, signalling ambitious Industry collaboration was also a key theme, both in terms of commercial rollouts of the technology. formulating approaches to serving vertical industries (the 5G Slicing Association) and building open networks to help drive service innovation (the ORAN Alliance). In opening up networks, however, It is not a case of simply flicking operators must be able to address security concerns. Stephen Buck, Product Director of Evolved Intelligence, warned that while a switch in 2019” most things have improved generation to generation, security has “ worsened, is impossible to retrofit within a standard, and therefore must be addressed in the next 5G standard release.