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A Look Back at the Movers and Shakers at MWC 2022

The MWC Barcelona 2022 welcomed 61,000 physical attendees this year and we are happy to report that we contributed to this number. It was a phenomenal experience being a part of all the buzz and excitement and witnessing it as we used to in the past.

The conference saw thousands of companies from across the globe represent the different facets of the industry. We received the opportunity to sponsor an event organized by Mobile Ecosystem Forum and are happy to report that our event saw great participation.

One of the largest and most influential events for the connectivity industry, this year’s edition saw over 1000 speakers, 1500+ exhibitors, 37 country pavilions. Here is a look at what the key highlights of the event were:

The Metaverse is all around

The tech world has latched on to the Meta concept ever since Facebook rebranded itself as Meta. The conversation around the metaverse has only increased since and it is now being positioned as the next big thing with platforms and services rendered in 3D virtual environments. MWC 2022 saw a rising crescendo with many companies announcing different kinds of Metaverse collaborations. FC Barcelona’s club president Joan Laporta, for example, announced that the sports club would “build its metaverse as part of a strategy to attract new supporters” and leverage the technology to support growth. For telecom companies, this means new opportunities as innovative and immersive solutions emerge and demand robust, quick, and highly-available bandwidth as the enabling infrastructure.

5G connections to witness record growth

The GSMA reported that 5G connections would surpass 1 billion in 2022. This number is expected to reach 2 billion by 2025. By the end of 2025, 5G is expected to represent one in five of the total number of mobile connections.

5G accounts for a larger share of global mobile connections than 3G or 4G has at the same point in their lifecycles. Innovative plans, an increasing number of 5G handset sales, video streaming, and network coverage expansions are some of the key contributors to this growth.

We can now expect to see a greater focus by telecom companies on network capability initiatives to support consumer and enterprise use cases across 5G including 5GmmWave, 5G Advanced, Private networks, etc.

AR, VR, and XR gain momentum

The MWC 2022 also pointed out the rising interest in Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality applications. Supercharged by meta, AR and VR are seeing increasing interest in the consumer space. Advances in computing power and consumer-friendly devices and applications have contributed to the rise of these technologies. These technologies are also finding applications in improving worker safety in industries such as manufacturing, oil, and gas, automobiles, etc where workers need unobtrusive, and hands-free devices to work.

The conference also revealed that Extended Reality (XR) will also come into the AR/VR mix and will roughly generate around generate $1.5 trillion in GDP by 2030, especially as the focus on user experience increases. This is a massive opening for telcos looking to layer business applications on top of their services for greater value add.

Service provider trend updates

The results of the study commissioned by Cavell Group revealed the lasting impact of the pandemic on service providers. The report revealed that one-third of the enterprises would be looking at changing service providers in 2022 as enterprises look at improving ‘band-aid’ responses and move towards enabling a hybrid work environment. Some of the major trends the report identifies are:

Service providers are under increased pressure to create new revenue sources and buttress margins and drive differentiation and retention with unified communication assuming strategic priority across enterprises.
Distributed video, Unified Communication as a Service (UCaaS), Contact Centre as a Service, and CPaaS (Communications Platform as a Service) services will see increased demand as the need to recreate in-person experiences continues
Service providers will have to increase service offerings in data, voice data, and other analytics

The hyperscale and OTT market is expected to become even more competitive in 2022

Enterprises will be looking at tightening up across infrastructures including communication infrastructures to navigate the compliance, security, governance landscape. Ransomware and risk-mitigation solutions will also grow in prominence. These developments will need service providers to become more agile and develop capabilities to deliver new and differentiated service offerings.

The global service provider industry will have to grow and adapt to the changes brought on by the distribution of workforces over the last two years and as threats and opportunities demand a rethinking of the traditional role of the service provider.

In Conclusion

We showcased some new-age solutions in areas like messaging, security, and even AI-led solutions that simplify onboarding for a new age of mobile service provider.

Powerful conversations around edge computing were also a highlight of the event as edge cloud enables architectural innovation to effectively build and evolve the 5G network cost-effectively.

Along with this, there were some major announcements such as Cisco’s Private 5G as-a-Service offer to enterprises to fuel productivity with mass-scale IoT adoption. The MWC also saw a number of product launches and a few big press conferences. Mobile was also at the centre of policy debates as political, regulatory, and telecom leaders debates issues challenging the telecom world and had pertinent conversations regarding economic recovery and creating a more digitally inclusive world.

The MWC 2022 saw some powerful discussions and keynotes and some phenomenal innovations. There was, however, a resonating theme across conversations amongst industry leaders – that mobile technology has been driving transformation. The MWC provides those operating the mobile and communication space a fabulous platform to collaborate, share insights and deliver innovations to drive positive business environments and societal change.

The Coming Roller Coaster Ride for Private Networks

The chorus of industry voices is now drawing our attention to the rise of private networks. As the world becomes increasingly smaller owing to rising connectivity, private networks offer the opportunity to further shrink the world of business while ensuring elevated interactions and seamless communication.

Today, high-speed, ultra-reliable, low-latency, high-density, power-efficient, wireless connectivity has become essential for enterprises. As such it hardly comes as a surprise to see enterprises looking for solutions that help them manage their sprawling wireless LAN ecosystems.

Data has also become an essential commodity in the wake of a growing appetite for 5G and WAN connections. Safeguarding data also now emerges as a top priority.

Private networks are becoming uniquely positioned to offer a solution to these challenges. They promise enterprises the capability to keep their data protected while providing the capacity and superior connectivity needed to realize the advantages of technology applications such as M2M and IoT.

What are private networks?

A private network is a telecommunication network that is built and operated by a telecommunication provider and is built specifically for an individual enterprise. These networks are usually deployed on a single site and extended across the length and breadth of the enterprise. Private LTE/5G networks can also help address wide-area network requirements, such as a utility’s need to monitor a transmission network.

While a private network needs similar elements as a public network, these networks are different from public mobile networks in some specific ways. That said, they can capably manage and provide support to the wide-area network requirements of the enterprise while supporting tools acquired from the consumer smartphone market.

The private networks, however, need spectrum. The spectrum can be leased from a carrier or another spectrum owner. These networks also need a virtualized core, be it as proprietary equipment from a vendor or disaggregated hardware and software from one or more different vendors. The core can also be commodity hardware that runs open-source software.

Apart from containing the database of subscribers and SIM management, the core ensures complete control over how and which users connect and their usage parameters. The other functions of the core include traffic shaping, billing and data plan rules, quality of service rules, and network monitoring-related parameters.

Private networks improve speed, latency, privacy, and security for enterprise network operations. This is so because the network traffic stays bounded “on-premise” and does not need to be sent back and forth to a core network in a distant location.

With the world moving towards becoming even more connected than it is today, the growing value of data and increasing data needs of technologies such as IoT, leveraging private networks seems like an attractive next step for enterprises. For telecom providers, this spells tremendous opportunity. They stand to gain as enterprises lean towards high-performing and reliable wireless networking solutions to drive business outcomes.

New factors contributing to the continuing rise of private networks

The role of private networks in enterprise operations is well understood. As we have seen, the use-cases are many and the benefits clear. The interesting thing now is the many new application scenarios, use-cases, and prospective user segments that are emerging to further drive up the buzz around private networks.

The conversation around digital transformation has become increasingly louder. This has changed how data is viewed, stored, collected, and analysed. This is compelling regulators to contemplate and help create an environment that enables responsible usage of data and other public resources in enterprise digital transformation paradigms. Given this, regulators across the globe have to look at models to drive spectrum licensing by taking inspiration from the existing licensing models across Germany, the UK, or the US (shared licensing) model.

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic also cannot be ignored in contributing to the rising demand in private networks. Schools, districts, municipalities, and other segments that do not fall under the addressable market associated with private networks need digital capabilities. As such they are now looking at deploying private LTE networks to add and leverage digital capabilities that will increase their reach and improve accessibility.

For telecom providers, the focus, so far, has been towards enabling enterprise mobility and WAN networks. However, with telecommunications becoming the lifeblood of the modern enterprise, telecom providers now have ample opportunity to increase their service portfolio and help enterprises embrace digital transformation and keep pace with technological transformations.

However, before we realize the true potential of private networks, telecom providers will have to address the existing network slicing challenges. Network slicing is one of the most compelling capabilities promised by 5G. Telcos will have to identify how to apply different slices to different enterprises connecting to their core network while ensuring that the same is not implemented among different application types and device groups within the same enterprise. As such telcos will now have to understand enterprise IT needs better and build compelling programs to address the enterprises’ communication needs.

Enabling technology adoption, driving digital transformation, and cloud-enabled/driven everything is table stakes now for enterprises. For telecom providers, this spells tremendous opportunity. Talk to us to understand more about the possibilities and challenges of adopting such next-gen technologies.

A Look At Network Virtualization And The Impact On The Telecom Sector

There is intense competition in the telecom sector. Customer expectations have increased.

That’s why telecom operators can no longer afford to use legacy network infrastructure. They are not built for the current type of services. Network infrastructure modernization has become so important in this context. The modern network infrastructure is more resilient and scalable than the legacy infrastructure. It helps prepare telecom operators to thrive in a hyper-competitive space. One way to modernize the network infrastructure is through network virtualization.

Unlike the traditional networks dependent on physical hardware, the virtualized ones deliver the network resources through software. So, operators are able to respond to market changes quickly and with more agility.

In fact, Network Function Virtualization (a kind of network virtualization that allows operators to virtualize specific network resources) is growing so significantly that a study predicts its market size to grow at a CAGR of 22.9% by 2024.

Let’s delve further to understand the impact it could have on the telecom sector.

Impact Of Network Virtualization On The Telecom Sector

Prepares for 5G

There will be 3 billion active 5G subscriptions in Asia and North America by 2024. 5G is expected to be a boon for the connected world we live in right now as it lowers the latency, reduces costs, accelerates the data speed, and reduces battery consumption. Considering that 5G will become a mainstay in the future, operators need to be prepared for it. However, 5G requires flexible and scalable infrastructure, which the monolithic architecture of the legacy network cannot promise. Operators need to virtualize their network architecture to support 5G capabilities. 5G works on the foundational idea of delivering all types of telecom service from anywhere, so it cannot work well with proprietary infrastructure. It works well with a service-based architecture in which multiple software networks are supported. Network virtualization can offer that flexibility. Network slicing is another 5G feature that virtualization could support, i.e., the physical network could be sliced into different virtualized networks to exchange resources efficiently.

Reduces costs

Network virtualization could reduce operation costs by 60%. Legacy network architecture required heavy investments in physical hardware. Operators had to also provision for more hardware investments in the future. Network virtualization is software-based and could potentially solve some of these issues. Operators can save costs on different network resources such as switching, routing, firewalling, etc. They are pooled and delivered through software and only require an IP packet forwarding from the physical network. Operators don’t have to worry about future scalability. The network resources can be scaled up if the demand grows and the capacity to scale up is available.

Provides more agility

Telecom operators can no longer rest on their past innovations for years to generate revenue. They have to innovate to stay agile and meet customer demands. Unfortunately, legacy network architecture cannot support such quick changes. Network virtualization provides that agility. The scalable and elastic nature of network virtualization allows operators to virtualize their hardware resource pool, improve their workflows, and support a range of applications. It helps the operators to launch services quickly and respond to the market changes by reducing the time-to-market.

Improves network security

Network virtualization enables telecom operators to support complex network security needs. As connected devices and data exchanges increase, the need for network security has increased. Legacy networks lack the capability to secure the increasing workload. Network virtualization enables operators to improve network security to safeguard data centres across the world and thus secure the data. Also, considering that technologies such as 5G require network slicing, there’s more network security guarantee. Network slicing separates the network resources. Each of these slices has its own authentication process. So, it’s easier to detect changes in behaviour patterns and traffic and mitigate the security risks accordingly.

Enhances operational efficiency

Network virtualization has become a necessity for operators to enhance their operational efficiency. First, the operators can save time on deploying hardware and other support systems. They also don’t have to follow the legacy processes that, by design, function in silos or rely on the IT team to configure each hardware system manually. Virtualization enables operators to automate the processes, so the teams can quickly deploy solutions to the increasing customer demands and achieve operational efficiency.

Conclusion

Network virtualization is changing the way operators consider business. It has opened more opportunities for operators to keep pace with emerging technologies like 5G and IoT and open a new revenue stream. However, mobile operators need to rethink the network architecture. They need to move away from using monolithic architecture and plan how to deploy it in their organization. A partial or complex overhaul of the network architecture could get complicated. That’s why operators need to work with experts who understand the virtualization model thoroughly and can help them with the transition and leverage the full potential of network virtualization.