MWC23 saw the largest gathering of the industry since 2019. The EC's 'fair share' consultation and calls for consolidation dominated operator keynotes as a challenging economic outlook looms. In many respects it was the same drumbeat of the last 10 years.
Also in the briefing:
Fair share
Netflix took to the stage to provide the counterbalance to calls for an ‘internet traffic tax’. It outlined $60bn in content production, $1.5bn for European cultural levies and $1bn in CDNs, arguing traffic growth is not unsustainable as some telcos portray.
Consolidation
Some of Europe’s biggest operators have declared a ‘call for action’ to fix Europe’s over regulated and over competitive framework and allow in-market consolidation. If they don’t, they risk becoming irrelevant given the increasing scale of US hyperscalers.
Sustainability
Sustainability has rightly become another fixture on the show's agenda. Industry highlighted the steps being taken to reduce the carbon footprint of mobile networks and the challenges to address, although there was less said on efforts to support the circular economy.
Scams
With $48bn expected to be lost to fraud in 2023 and the number of successful fraud attempts now outnumbering those that failed, attention is turning to reforming identity systems and asking what collaboration is needed between banks, big tech and telcos.
Spectrum
We heard positives (how with the right spectrum, 5G can deliver a more than 30% reduction in energy usage), negatives (how mmWave has been a bit of a disappointment so far), and operators already urging regulators to begin laying the groundwork for 6G.
Satellite
Given the rise of satellite broadband over the past 12 months, providers were keen to stress they weren’t seeking to disintermediate the telco, but rather should be viewed as partner with many technical challenges still to overcome.
