Mobile World Congress 2013

By: Jesse Cryderman, Scott St. John, Pipeline

The weather outside was frightful, but the venue was so delightful.

What the Fira Gran Via, the new home to Mobile World Congress (MWC), lacked in aesthetics, it made up for in size, accessibility and protection from the elements. Some attendees missed the palatial grounds of the old Fira, but most exhibitors were happy with the substantial increase in size, and the bottom line is the show delivered: attendance hit a record 72,000, according to the GSMA. Mobile World Capital signed a five-year deal to keep the show in Barcelona, and the new space offers plenty of room to grow the event. Pipeline walked many miles each day commuting to and from the nine halls spread across the massive venue, and here’s what we learned.

Chief executives of leading mobile operators united to voice a single message to their respective governments during the opening keynotes of MWC 2013: “Hands off.” Top brass from AT&T, Telecom Italia, Vodafone, Telefónica, and China Mobile urged regulators to relax mobile regulation or else risk slowing down the pace of innovation and the associated boost in GDP (gross domestic product). On Tuesday, February 26, Deutsche Telekom CEO Rene Obermann called for deeper collaboration and coopetition among service providers in order for them to remain relevant in the new digital service economy.

“Cooperation is key. Coopetition is unavoidable, it is necessary,” said Obermann, adding that telcos “have to embrace innovation more aggressively, primarily by partnering, by opening up, by considering themselves and behaving like platforms open to third-party providers of services.” Aepona is one of the technology providers Pipeline met with at MWC that’s helping service providers do just that. By opening up network resources through cloud-enabled APIs (application programming interfaces), service providers can monetize what makes them truly unique by offering those resources to application developers through initiatives like GSMA’s OneAPI platform.

Technology related to connected cars, smart cities, eHealth, and NFC (near-field communication) all had a larger presence at this year’s event than ever before. In a large lot beside one of the showrooms Ford offered conference attendees test drives of their new connected cars, and companies like Abalta Technologies highlighted novel ways to address the usability and evolution of in-car connectivity. Is this the breakout year for NFC? Vendors, payment processors, device manufacturers, service providers, and MWC itself invested heavily in telling its story at this year’s event, but Pipeline has its doubts. And although Big Data was a big story as well, how to get value from its solutions is the bigger story.

Pipeline learned from Guavus that service providers are especially interested in proven, agile Big Data applications. Ontology Systems promoted the idea that providers ditch integration and go with intelligent search to find the needles in their Big Data haystacks, while Carrier iQ announced the launch of iQ Care™, bridging Big Data and CEM to offer device-level mobile intelligence that provides benefits for customer-care organizations and device manufacturers alike. Gigamon also demonstrated how it can help service providers tame Big Data while reducing costs, and HP established its Vertica Analytics Platform as being designed and optimized for today’s Big Data demands to allow for scaling and effective cost management.

Wi-Fi was another significant story at MWC. Devicescape showcased a truly innovative solution that by and large turns public Wi-Fi into managed, carrier-accessible wireless capacity. And Malaysia-based GreenPacket offered operators a phased approach for getting into the Wi-Fi game, beginning with a seamless authentication solution that’s focused on the user experience.