MWC24 and future prospects

Barcelona: The Mobile World Congress and Barcelona have virtually become synonymous and the festive air at the 2024 edition was no different. Sunshine and clouds played hide and seek outside the world’s largest and most influential connectivity event, but inside we were all warming up to the breathtaking technology and innovations taking place across the world — on display on a single stage.
In all, four days of vibrant discussion and networking saw industry leaders and attendees from across the mobile ecosystem making the most of the opportunity.
Mobile Economy Report 2024To mark the opening of MWC Barcelona, the GSMA launched its annual Mobile Economy Report, spotlighting the latest trends shaping the global mobile ecosystem with recommended areas of investment to help the industry expand mobile access and improve service quality.
The key findings include:
? By 2029, 5G is projected to represent over half (51%) of all mobile connections, with its adoption rate increasing to 56% by the decade’s end.
? At the close of 2023, 58% of the global population, or 4.7bn individuals, were accessing the Internet via mobile devices, marking a rise of 2.1bn users since 2015.
? Despite having access to mobile broadband networks, 3bn people do not use mobile internet, highlighting the critical ‘Usage Gap.’ This emphasises the need to tackle adoption barriers, such as the cost of mobile devices and the lack of literacy/digital skills, as pointed out by the GSMA’s ‘Breaking Barriers’ initiative.
? In 2023, mobile technologies and services contributed to 5.4% of the worldwide GDP, translating to an economic value of $5.7tn.
? The global economy is poised to gain over $930bn from 5G by 2030, with the manufacturing sector (36%), public administration (15%), and services industry (10%) standing to benefit the most.
Commercial 5G services: the future l By January 2024, 261 operators across 101 nations had initiated commercial 5G services, with over 90 operators from 64 markets pledging to future rollouts. Among these services, 47 operate on 5G Standalone (SA) networks, and there are 89 upcoming deployments that will leverage advancements such as network slicing, ultra-reliable low-latency communications, and the streamlined architecture of 5G SA networks.
? The expansion of 5G SA networks, alongside enhanced capabilities for private and dedicated networks, is set to significantly increase the number of connected devices, pushing forward the global vision for the Internet of Things (IoT) in the enterprise sector.
? According to GSMA Intelligence, the enterprise segment currently boasts 10.7bn IoT connections, surpassing the consumer segment’s 10.5bn. This trend is anticipated to surge, with enterprise connections expected to more than double to 38.5bn by 2030. Smart buildings and smart manufacturing are projected to constitute 34% and 16% of these enterprise connections, respectively.
? The introduction of 5G-Advanced, following the 3GPP Release 18, marks another pivotal milestone in IoT development. This advancement is set to trigger new 5G investments from 2024 into 2025. Reports indicate that over half of the operators plan to start deploying 5G-Advanced solutions within a year of their availability, focusing on essential use cases like 5G multicast services and affordable IoT support.
? There are also forecasts for a fourfold increase in mobile data traffic from now until 2030, highlighting the crucial role of expanding 5G coverage and capacity and underscoring the necessity for ongoing investments in infrastructure. Expectedly, the average monthly global mobile data traffic per connection will rise from 12.8GB in 2023 to 47.9GB by 2030.
? The surge in Generative AI (GenAI) utilisation — currently being tested by 56% of operators — will likely contribute significantly to this data traffic increase. This growth will be fuelled by various applications, such as the deployment of GenAI-powered chatbots for customer service and the expanding production of AI-generated video and music content.
GSMA Open Gateway: Unlocking 5G potential The Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) has highlighted the strides taken by the sector and its allies towards realising the vast capabilities of 5G and making network Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) commercially available via the GSMA Open Gateway project.
Unveiled at the MWC Barcelona event in 2023, the Open Gateway aims to boost the development of digital services and applications by granting developers worldwide access to telecommunication operators’ networks. In the past year, this initiative has garnered the support of 47 mobile operator groups, which account for 239 mobile networks and 65% of worldwide connections. Collaborating with tech giants such as AWS, Infobip, Microsoft, Nokia, and Vonage, the initiative has successfully launched 94 APIs for enterprise developers in 21 markets spanning Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas. These APIs have been developed for various applications, including fraud prevention and identity verification.
Talent ArenaThe Mobile World Capital Barcelona successfully conducted the first-ever Talent Arena hackathon at MWC Barcelona 2024, a newly introduced zone focusing on digital expertise. Over the course of two days, 48 tech experts took on the challenge to innovate and shape the future of telecommunications through their projects.
The Talent Arena, with its primary goal of fostering connections between digital professionals of varied disciplines and leading Barcelona-based companies, served as a hub for discovering emerging trends and career possibilities within the digital domain.
The hackathon, lasting 48 hours, resulted in three standout projects. The first-place project introduced a collaborative system for reporting issues to public administrations and confirming their locations. The second-place project was a streaming platform designed to enhance live video viewing experiences for users. The third-place project proposed a solution to improve healthcare for individuals in foreign countries who face language barriers.
In conclusion, Mats Granryd, Director General, GSMA noted: “Hearing truly compelling industry insights from the conference programme, and experiencing the innovation, ingenuity and optimism from the show floor, is why we meet in Barcelona every year. This event is about providing a glimpse into the future and demonstrating how AI, 5G and APIs are unlocking new possibilities, thanks to collaborative initiatives like GSMA Open Gateway.”
THE MWC24 IN NUMBERS
? Over 101,000 unique in-person attendees from 205 countries and territories
? Over 59% of attendees representing industries adjacent to the core mobile ecosystem
? Over 2,700 exhibitors, sponsors and partners
? Over 1,100 speakers and thought leaders, including over 40% female speakers
? 51% of attendees at director level and above, of which 21% were C-Suite
? 26% female attendees
? Over 2,600 journalists and industry analysts from around the world
? The GSMA Ministerial Programme convened over 180 delegations from 140 countries, including two heads of state, over 70 ministers, nearly 120 heads of regulatory authorities and over 40 intergovernmental organisations
? 4YFN, which this year celebrated its 10th anniversary edition, welcomed 930 exhibitors, 450 speakers and over 1,000 investors with collective funds totalling €50bn
? MWC Barcelona has been certified as carbon neutral for 10 years. And this year, use of the complimentary public transport pass given to all MWC attendees increased by 42% compared to last year. With the GSMA’s Environmental Programme, the aim is to minimise the environment footprint of MWC
? At the time of writing this, over 400,000 unique viewers of the keynotes and live sessions on the MWC Barcelona website, Mobile World Live and media partners platforms and media outlets