MWC 2025 Agenda (with Earl Lum)

Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 in Barcelona is fast approaching. Once again, Leonard Lee of neXt Curve will be there with Earl Lum of EJL Wireless Research to cover what will matter in 2025 in the world of mobile wireless and telecommunications.

This year, Earl and I have put together a pretty broad agenda that covers the follow topics and research objectives:

➡️ What's new with AI-RAN and AI-native?

➡️ Advances in radios and antennas

➡️ Open RAN Squid Game Season 2

➡️ Network APIs, marketplaces and exchanges

➡️ Open Gateway Initiative, CAMARA & Aduna

➡️ 5G transformation and modernization state of mind

➡️ What happened to Metaverse?

➡️ What's happening at the booths of the big guys? (Ericsson, Nokia, Huawei, ZTE Corporation)

➡️ The state of 5G Standalone, 5.5G/5G Advanced

➡️ Edge infrastructure, management & orchestration (SMO)

➡️ Semiconductor & chips

➡️ Where are we with generative AI for telco?

➡️ New culinary delights in Barcelona and novel wines

If you would like to set up a meeting, connect with Earl Lum at www.ejlwireless.com and Leonard Lee at www.next-curve.com. Make a request through our respective request forms. 

Please subscribe to our podcast which will be featured on the neXt Curve YouTube Channel. Check out the audio version on BuzzSprout - https://nextcurvepodcast.buzzsprout.com or find us on your favorite Podcast platform.  

Also, subscribe to the neXt Curve research portal at www.next-curve.com for the tech and industry insights that matter.

Transcript

Earl Lum: 0:06

Next curve.

Leonard Lee: 0:09

Hey everyone. Welcome to next curves, rethink webcast, and our series from the radio to the Rick. I'm Leonard Lee, executive analyst at next curve joined by my good friend and renowned telco tech analyst, Earl Lum of EGL wireless. And, uh, it's that time of year again, we are fast closing in on MWS. Excuse me. MWC 2025. Too many. Earl, way too many events going on. This is just the beginning of the year. It's crazy.

Earl Lum: 0:44

Well, way too many for you.

Leonard Lee: 0:46

I'm losing it. And so what we're going to be talking about, we're going to be talking about our agenda. What is it that we're going to be looking for at this year's premier mobile industry event, which takes place in Barcelona? toward the end of February into their early, first week of March. And so it's coming up quickly and, we're going to share with you what we're looking for and a little bit of what we hope to see. So, before we get started, remember to like share and comment on this episode, even though it's going to be a short one and, subscribe to the reefing podcast here on YouTube and on Buzzsprout. Take us on the road and on your jog and listen to us on your favorite podcast platform. And yeah, with that, why don't you start off, Earl, what are you looking for? What do you expect that this year's MWC?

Earl Lum: 1:43

Well, I think I expect a lot of people to talk about AI ran expect. People to be trying, I guess. What talking about what is their latest and greatest toy that they're going to be demonstrating and unveiling to the mobile operator community or to the wireless community in general. So, by that all of the new radios that are going to be coming out. All of the new antenna products, anything related to open ran is certainly going to be on my radar in terms of making sure I understand what's there. And then what is that cool technology that I can find that needle in the haystack? Yeah, it's going to wow me that it's going to impress me because. To be quite honest, everything there is interesting. There's some cool stuff that happens and that gets unveiled every year. But does it blow me away? Usually not, but there's always the hope and possibility that something will. So I'm looking forward to figuring out what that is. I don't know what it is yet, but I'm hoping there'll be something there that will do that. And we'll see what Booth is in.

Leonard Lee: 3:01

Yeah, and that's always the beauty of being there in person, right? It's that Serendipity and now that's becoming an overused term now everyone uses that term serendipity You know serendipity doodah that's how you bump into the really cool stuff, I'm looking forward to that as I do every year and yeah, I'm with you, man. what is the state of the radio, but you're the radio guy. I, you're going to be the one who tells me what I'm actually looking at. Um, the other thing I'm looking forward to is, network APIs and this whole. Kamara, the progress of kamara, the Open Gateway Initiative. And for those of you who may recall, GSMA announced the open AP, open, gateway Initiative in 2023. since there's been a number of announcements, most notably. The announcement of, the recently, named, Duna, which was, announced at least that it's a JV, amongst 12 operators and Erickson as well as Vonage and. Google to establish a network API exchange for lack of a better word, of global scale. and so I think there's going to be a lot of news and talk about it at this year's, MWC, and I'm just really curious to see, how this thing gets kicked off. Right? Because I think this is the first time we've seen a really. Global effort, to implement the spirit of, the open gateway initiative. So, yeah, this should be exciting. The other thing I'm looking for are signs of this transition away from sort of these aspirational 5G stuff related to transformation. that has largely been hyped up by generative AI. I'm trying to see if there's evidence of people settling back into more sensible 5G modernization. Focus, right? Things like modernizing your, network. How about that? Let's see if we can make the transition to essay and figure out a business case for doing that. modernizing operations, OSS, BSS, CPQ, all these things that are essential to actually. creating a monetization channel on top of a modernized network. are we focusing on that? because I think over the last few years, actually, I think, the industry and the conference overall. Thematically has, be become distracted by so many cycles of height, generative AI being the latest one. And the preview, the previous one obviously is Metaverse, right? So maybe see if there's a dead body lying around somewhere with the Metaverse tag around its neck. Um, yeah, we'll.

Earl Lum: 6:02

More along is big toe, but I also think that, like you said, on the and on the and Erickson and his partners, it'll be interesting to see what Erickson is going to be showcasing in his booth. Obviously, in hall 2 as usual, and then what are the other operator partners going to be showcasing about that theme in their own respective booths? I think it's going to be key. To understand how aligned are they from the official word, what they're promoting at the show. and then also, I think a key thing and a key point for our listeners and viewers is what are Huawei and ZTE going to have in their booths, because that is really going to be a sign of where part of the industry, at least the Chinese part of the industry is going to be going. And where does the rest of the industry try to follow?

Leonard Lee: 6:58

Yeah, exactly. last year, if you read the report that I put out, there's a lot of hints as to some of the key areas of innovation. That, the Chinese vendors have been, moving forward with, which largely wasn't talked about, but especially of late with the advent of, deep seek there's a lot of themes that were pretty relevant to what we're seeing today on the. Gender of AI supercomputing and, training side of, things, you know, so, yeah, I'm very interested in, seeing what their talk track is going to be about, especially as it pertains to. 5. 5 G or 5 G. What is the kind of traction that they're making there? And then also, want to find out, more about what is happening with this idea of. AI native, you mentioned, AI ran, but then there's also this broader topic of AI native. And I've asked several vendors and, technologists in the, and telco industry. Well, what do we mean by a native? And it was a question I posed that 5G America is. Not a lot of people have a good idea. A lot of it is hypothetical. And so what is it that we're trying to move toward? And as many people know, you've already mentioned it, Earl AI ran is that topic de jure it's supplanted open, ran in many ways. I think largely due to the fact that the air has been released from that balloon,

Earl Lum: 8:36

deflated just a bit and maybe there'll be sightings of John Baker at MWC Barcelona. We'll have to wait and see

Leonard Lee: 8:44

John reach out to us. We definitely want to yeah, I would love to talk to you Yes, cuz he you know, if there's any person in the world who's going to breathe life back into open RAN it's John Baker, so John Hopefully you watch this episode and you reach out to us and get us on your calendar because you're not on our calendars yet but yeah, what is OpenRAN 2. 0 going to look like? Or at least Redux, because it's not gone. We've never said that it would go away. We only cited that there is a squid game going on and we're probably looking at squid game. Season 2, I think Netflix just released. Right. I think, yeah, they released season 2 of the squid game. So this is very timely.

Earl Lum: 9:30

Yeah. I also think that, again, there are a lot of things that just. That you just come upon without knowing that you were going to look for it as you're going up and down every aisle of every one of the halls. Except for Hall 8, no offense to them, but I'm never going there. And, there's always something that you're not expecting that just pops up. Maybe it was fate or something else that you were meant to see and discover that technology or that product. from some unknown vendor that's there, but I think the focus obviously is on the big guys, at least for me, in terms of what the top radio guys are going to be doing and what's in their boots. And for those that have been shut out. Historically at Erickson, this year is your lucky year. If you're going, they will actually have an external outside exhibit before you have to go through the, the wonderful turnstiles and badge into the actual booth. So there actually is going to be some stuff for people to see from Erickson that won't be behind the walls or that the closed garden as we, so put it, historically. So I think that will hopefully get a lot more people to go to the Erickson booth that have, not been planning to go.

Leonard Lee: 10:41

Yeah, and you know what, I'd love to talk to Nokia, obviously they're doing a lot of stuff related to network APIs, right? they have their network as code, platform that they announced a couple of years ago now, I think. Going on a couple of years ago, so it'll be interesting to see where their heads at, especially given, the moves that Erickson is making with its operator partners and, you know, there is a bit of overlap and so, you know, what's the play there and, I think that would be, also a good opportunity to find out, what is it that they're doing in terms of, addressing the North America market, right? And other markets that they're playing in, given, that their business is also, fundamentally shifting, With a lot of the acquisitions that they've made of late with Infinera. So how does all that stuff play out and what kind of stories surface from that booth this year, given a lot of the changes that are happening at Nokia. And, the other thing, obviously Silicon is always an interesting thing. So we're going to be talking to Silicon folks and, What the state of their business is really interested in, how they're viewing the market, the market opportunity, and maybe, exchanging, notes, comparing notes and, edge infrastructure. I think that's another big thing. one of the things that we always see coming, from MWC are inklings of, The next generation of edge orchestration, edge management and, edge infrastructure technologies. And so always have an eye out for any new developments there. So, I'm sure that our silicon buddies, semiconductor buddies are going to have some stories and new, um, announcements that they're going to make. And so that's something else that I'm going to look into, as part of my tradition of attending MWC.

Earl Lum: 12:40

I think finally, I think we're going to be looking forward to a lot of great food and again, the social aspects of meeting with people from the industry and getting insights from them, usually outside of the booth. After hours, and that's where all of the cool stuff could be, discovered. And again, I think it's going to be a good week. And finally, my. My focus is to not lose anything this year as compared to last year. So I'll leave it at that. Good

Leonard Lee: 13:14

thing. Yes.

Earl Lum: 13:15

That would be a good thing. I'm not due for another 10 years.

Leonard Lee: 13:18

Yeah. Well, always, travel with a buddy. if anybody wants to invite us to their party, We are life of the party for hire. So we're happy to show up at your party. We're only double booked at the moment. So we're happy to be triple and quadruple, quadruple

Earl Lum: 13:35

books. Exactly. but yes, we will make an appearance.

Leonard Lee: 13:39

we have those, number three and number four overlapping slots in our schedule in the evening. So just reach out to us and, we'll be happy to, drop by and say hi and then, you know, hopefully. Have a chance to chat about, what's hot for your company at MWC 2025. And also remember, we're going to have now, what is our traditional recap podcast that we will film in some, hole in the wall restaurant.

Earl Lum: 14:10

Spacious

Leonard Lee: 14:10

hole in the wall restaurant. Spacious hole in the wall restaurant with great tapas and wonderful wine. And we will be joined by Mark Poose, who is the IOT giant of Balena. And I literally, yes, he is literally a giant and he'll be joining us and we'll be recapping, MWC 2025. So you won't want to miss out on that. it's just going to be a pandemonium. Yes,

Earl Lum: 14:37

it'll be a crazy week as always.

Leonard Lee: 14:40

Yes. So, uh, Hey, thanks everyone for tuning in and make sure to reach out to us. If you want to talk to next curve and, or, EGL wireless, you can reach us at www dot next dash curve. com. You can contact. Earl at, www. ejlwireless. com and just, go to LinkedIn, DM either of us, both of us, if you want both of us there and want to talk to both of us. Please subscribe to the NextCurve YouTube channel. And the easiest thing to do is subscribe to the NextCurve research portal and media center at www. next curve. com for a constant diet of tech and industry insights from. MWC 2025. Oh. Also make sure to, watch last year's, podcasts that we have for 2024. That'll be a good, uh, prep For, the event this year. And so a nice retrospective, if you will. I also have a report and I think, Earl, you do as well. on LinkedIn, as well as on our respective, research sites that you can read up on and, it will hopefully provide you with some, good background into what we're probably going to encounter this year in Barcelona. So with that, we'll see you

Earl Lum: 16:02

in Barcelona. Yeah, see you in Barcelona. Thanks.