My Top 3 Takeaways from MWC22

Last week I attended Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where I had the opportunity to experience the future. From next generation AR glasses to smart factories, I got a taste of what life will look like in the next 5 years, and let me tell you, it’s exciting. 

In the midst of experiencing what life will be like in the future, I kept drawing myself back to the present wondering - what is accessible today to enable the connectivity of the future? And I found a lot of answers at the Ericsson pavilion.

Ericsson’s continued investment in innovation has delivered the benefits of connectivity to billions of people around the world, and at their MWC22 pavilion, I got to experience the innovations firsthand. As someone who’s passionate about tech for good and leveraging innovation to have a positive impact on people’s lives, here are my top 3 takeaways about what I experienced:

1. Sustainability is charting the course

Ericsson recently launched a new portfolio of 7 sustainable products that make the most of 5G while optimizing energy consumption. The leading product is the Radio 4490, which consumes 25% less power and has 25% lower weight compared to the previous product. When partnered with complimentary equipment, the new radio enables 10x the capacity while still lowering the energy consumption through new features, like Deep Sleep.

With the Deep sleep feature, radios can hibernate while consumers and businesses are inactive. Low traffic hours enable huge energy savings potential on each radio and site. Deep Sleep saves around 70% of the energy otherwise consumed, by hibernating the radio when there is little or no traffic. This is a game changer for energy reduction.

When it comes to achieving sustainability goals, tracking progress is paramount. At the pavilion, Ericsson had this really cool interactive globe that you could spin and drill into use cases in support of the global initiatives and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

2. Complex tech simplifies daily life

Although Network Slicing is not as consequential as sustainability, it does open new possibilities for consumers and CSPs. I’m all about tech that impacts daily life, so I enjoyed Ericsson’s Dynamic Network Slice Selection demo. Through use cases, the monetization opportunities for CSPs and tangible benefits to consumers become crystal clear. 

Here are some examples on how slice selection benefits consumers:

Use Case #1 - Mira is an office employee that, with Network Slice Selection, can have two accounts, one as an employee paid for by her company and another for personal use paid for by herself. With the slice selection, she can tailor which services are accessible to each account to optimize services to perform her job and optimize her daily life well.

Use Case #2 - Jenny is a cost conscious gamer. When she’s gaming, she wants to have the best, top-level mobile broadband service. With slice selection she’s able to boost her service up to the premium level when she’s gaming, but level it down for everyday use to be most cost efficient.

Use Case #3 - Carla is a teacher. She’s dedicated to her students and wants to give them access to the best educational applications and tools. In this instance, slice selection is applied so that the school will pay for services Carla selects and on device non-curricular activity is billed separately to the child’s family.

This compartmentalization is so very practical. I wish I could compartmentalize my life this easily, can Ericsson help me network slice my brain? 😂

3. Human connection is at the heart of it all

Improving human connection was at the heart of everything I experienced at the Ericsson pavilion. The low latency of 5G coupled with new hardware innovations, such as lightweight AR glasses, are enabling limitless opportunities for connectivity that are available to us right now. 

One of my favorite experiences was a holographic demo that enabled me to interact with someone across the room via real-time holography with incredible detail in facial expressions and body language. Being able to see a loved one or a co-worker in 3D takes virtual interactions to a whole new level.

Another one of my favorite experiences was a 5G XR gaming demo that enables people to play together in real-time. In this mixed reality experience, the game overlapped onto the showfloor, allowing you to join fellow gamers in any mixed environment. A clip of the experience is below.

The bottom line

At the end of the day, we’re all connected and whether it be working to achieve energy efficiency for a more sustainable world, or improving daily life through network slicing, or finding new ways to come together through 5G XR applications, the innovations of today are laying the foundation for a more connected tomorrow.

A huge THANK YOU to the Ericsson team for providing the opportunity to learn about and experiencing the newest tech innovations.

I was invited to the MWC22 Ericsson pavilion and I’m writing this article as a member of the Ericsson Ambassador Program.