The AI/telecoms duo
In one of the aisles of Hall 2, there's an advertisement that reads "No mobile, no AI," and it's true. Two key themes of this year's event are AI for networks and networks for AI. The first focuses on optimizing and making telecommunications more profitable, whether by switching segments on and off based on demand or entrusting customer service to algorithms. At the Google Cloud booth, I saw a demonstration of Amdocs' dashboard, which shows each mobile subscriber a human supervisor sees when we call the company complaining about our rates. The tools they have at their disposal to decide whether or not to give us a discount are impressive. In the second area, the increased use of generative AI is forcing a change in network architecture: until now, 90% of the bits circulating through the network have been downlink, towards our devices; telecom companies are already working on a scenario where the ratio is 60% (downlink) to 40% (uplink). Just one clue: Huawei predicts that by 2035 there will be 900 billion AI agents doing things on the network, one hundred for each of the 9 billion humans.
The Congress of the Uniformed
The global climate of political instability, with an open war underway in the Middle East, has marked this year's MWC. Not only because many attendees were unable to reach Barcelona; even Gopal Vittal, president of GSMA and of the Indian giant Bharti Airtel, had to stay home, forcing CEO Vivek Badrinath to deliver his presentations. But also, and above all, because every crisis is also an opportunity. Both operators and their suppliers expanded their spaces dedicated to promoting technologies, products, and services for military use. Let's not just talk about cyber warfare, but also physical warfare. For example, equipment that facilitates rapid troop deployments on the ground and the management of military operations. Telefónica boasted on Wednesday at its stand—beneath a spectacular cylindrical screen, the best at the entire MWC—that its 5G cyber defense center has been integrated into the corresponding NATO agency. And it did so with commanders from the Spanish Army, Navy, and Air Force. Aside from the Bourbon's official visits and the always interesting Mossos d'Esquadra stand, I don't recall ever seeing so many high-ranking officials at MWC.
Mobile phone antennas as anti-drone radars.
One of the various military technologies we saw this week at the Fira is called ISAC (Integrated Sensors and Communications). It uses the radio waves emitted by mobile phone antennas to detect, measure, and locate the physical environment (objects, weather, pollution) by analyzing the energy reflected off these elements with AI. In this case, without having to deploy new radars, the algorithms could identify hostile drones and facilitate their interception. Nokia already discussed ISAC at the previous MWC, and Ericsson included it in the area of its stand dedicated to the future 6G (around 2030), but the German research center Fraunhofer assures me that it could already work with the current 5G network.