With Day Two in the books, we wanted to offer a sense of where the conference is heading from the floor at Mobile World Congress Americas 2018. If you can’t be here, you can take a look at yesterday’s post: From the Floor #MWCA18 Day One Takeaway
The Fourth Industrial Revolution?
IoT and 5G are no longer just buzzwords; they’ll be the new norm.
The future of technology, 6G, where breaching the terahertz barrier could happen in this decade, is still largely conceptual (*though this was part of the discussion on Day Two of the conference). But the second day of the conference was all about the overarching theme that what were once similar conceptual buzzwords––are now realities.
Verizon is continuing to be a focus with its roll-out of 5G for home. Verizon announcement that 5G for home will be offered in four major cities has been an important step for 5G. Yesterday, Verizon expanded on details that these roll-outs, starting October 1, will begin in Los Angeles, Sacramento, Houston and Indianapolis, and it’s clear they’re positioned to be a highly competitive alternate for the existing cable options currently in these cities. Verizon will offer free installation, routers and router software (starting in 2019), dedicated 5G customer service experts, first access for mobile 5G and unlimited data caps. They also plan to roll out 5G home to more cities and 5G mobile quickly.
“The Verizon Effect”
If you can imagine the angle, the entry point, the use case, the networking reach possibilities, existence across all spectrum bands, whatever, of 5G, MWCA18 has delivered it, albeit, all within the conspicuous shadow of Verizon’s jump start.
From better end-to-end 5G architecture, the push toward an open RAN architecture (ORAN), and the buy-in and components needed to do so, the presentations and demos underpin the larger conversation: being first matters. The conference has highlighted U.S. opportunities and products with major carriers and operators. But 5GAsia, happening next week, may make a faster pacing more practical as the region jockeys for the front of the line in 5G network capabilities and accessibility.
IoT for Safer, Smarter Community
The takeaway from Day Two of the conference is that IoT use cases are no longer highlighting cool connectivity in the home sphere. Rather the focus is on the community applications such as in healthcare, city planning, smart transportation, safer driving and autonomous cars.
Alternately, IoT use cases for more accessible, B2B applications were also tucked into Day Two offerings; such as smart monitoring for ingredients, goods and transport.
Rich Communication Services for Business: Time to Upgrade
RCS Business Messaging is not a race against other messaging apps, it’s the opportunity for the on-time upgrade from SMS to rich featured, universal-profile messaging. If presenters didn’t make that clear in the first day’s packed RCS conference, presentations on the floor are showing how the upgrade is already benefitting businesses.
RCS Business Messaging is not a race against other messaging apps, it’s the opportunity for the on-time upgrade from SMS to rich featured, universal-profile messaging
Presentations show how RCS Messaging is simplifying-simple transactions in a way that SMS can’t. From booking reservations, ordering take-out to using a train schedule, the RCS interface makes the user experience easier. RCS, coupled with conversational AI technology, a conference highlight of Day Two, is the set point for what will be a better messaging experience as we head into this “4th Industrial Revolution.”
