The first conclusion after the closing of this edition of the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2018) is that it has had less glamor in terms of terminal presentations, if there has been, of course, but has not been the center of attention from other years in which Samsung, Huawei, LG or Sony struggled to attract the attention of the media and the audience.
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What has been more mediatic is 5G.It is true that it has been talking about 5G for several editions of the MWC, but this year it has been different: there is already operational technology and real demonstrations could be seen of operation of these next generation communications networks.And it has also been the year of Artificial Intelligence in fields such as communications networks, mobile terminals, voice assistants or security.
The Internet of Things is becoming the new normal , and is beginning to be used in a usual way.There are already use cases such as OFO bicycles that use this technology to manage the opening of the locks and to know the location of the bikes, for example.And companies use this technology in their internal processes as we will see.There has not been much talk in this MWC about it, but it was present everywhere.
But let's go over the MWC based on the most prominent mobile phones presented.
Nokia, or the triumph of the retro
Samsung presented its expected Galaxy S9/S9 + the Sunday before the opening of the fair, although they were not as spectacular as expected. The double opening of the camera and the super mode Slow motion were two of the novelties in the photographic part, along with the possibility of making our own 3D emojis.However, it has not changed just compared to the S8/S8 +.They are good terminals, of course, but evolutionary rather than revolutionary .
Nokia, however, with the relaunch of the Nokia 8110 (the Matrix phone), which it now calls "Banana" as a nickname, achieved a significant media impact.Nokia's star models they were the Nokia 7 Plus and the Nokia 8 Sirocco , though, well-equipped Android smartphones with the pure version of Android without a personalization layer.
Asus presented the Zenfone 5 family, while Alcatel also presented models within the mid-range and input segment.The other large one that presented terminals was Sony with its Xperia XZ2 and the XZ2 Compact , with good arguments to capture the attention of the public.In addition, the XZ2 was used in different demonstrations of the fair to be equipped with a Gigabit LTE modem that was one of the technologies that were present in many of the stands of telecommunications infrastructure operators and providers such as Huawei, Ericsson or Nokia.
LG, meanwhile, presented a retreaded LG V30 with AI technology and integration with the ThinQ platform for home automation.
Huawei announced the date of presentation of its P20, which will be on March 27 in Paris , making it more or less clear that there will be three cameras.What I present was a portable team, the Matebook X Pro , as well as tablets and 5G devices as routers to connect to 5G communications networks (waiting for mobile phones with 5G next year).These Huawei 5G devices were used in technical demos of this technology, as was the case of Orange in the demonstration of VR video streaming.
5G, the promise come true
This year, as we said, 5G has already been reality in the form of demonstrations at different points of the fair .Although it should be made clear that, for now, many of the 5G functionalities can be achieve squeezing the maximum 4.5G technology.That is, the LTE technology taken to the extreme of what it can offer, overlaps with the starting point of 5G in terms of technology.
What if it is already being changed by the operators is the part of the base stations and the antennas, where equipment that can handle both 4G and 5G is being installed.Features such as massive MIMO or Beamforming can already be used with 4.5G, even if your maximum match will be taken when the final 5G systems are adopted .
However, 5G demos have been real and tangible.For example, Orange in combination with Huawei showed an example of using 5G in a virtual reality scenario .In the Barcelona cable car In a cabin, a 360 camera connected to a Huawei 5G device was installed, which, in turn, was connected to a 5G base station to which the receiving equipment was also connected in the Orange stand where the streaming was received 360 video to watch in Oculus glasses.
In Ericsson, however, you could see some demonstration of 5G technologies implemented over 4.5G , such as the management of high-speed train safety in Switzerland in a critical environment.
Intel is also working on 5G technology in the modem part and I present a laptop equipped with 5G natively , while Telefonica and Vodafone also showed technical demonstrations around 5G.
Gigabit LTE, the closest present
However, the technology that is already here and can be used by users, is Gigabit LTE.Orange demonstrated this technology using a brand new Xperia XZ2 together with Gigabit LTE network infrastructure to get 745 Mbps real speed.
Ericsson also used the XZ2 in its technical demos of this technology and Qualcomm presented the Always Connected PCs in partnership, which are nothing more than Windows 10 computers that use a smartphone processor such as Snapdragon 835 to work, integrating LTE and Gigabit LTE communications while consumption is reduced compared to Intel or AMD processors.
Anyway, despite the speed increases that are experienced in mobile networks, fiber networks are still the ones that keep the records like the one that Orange has established with its demonstration of 25GPON technology with which he doubled last year's figure to 25 Gbps using fiber optic technology.
IoT, works and is used
The IoT, beyond the "Hype" of other editions, is already being used and in a "normal" way.Without going any further, Orange showed a demo of its application to remotely monitor and manage the stations base of your network infrastructure , including live video streaming thanks to the possibilities of LTE-M, one of the possible technologies that can be used in IoT together with NB-IoT.
In this demonstration, you could see the status of one of the company's locations, showing operating parameters as well as the live view of the site , thanks to the fact that LTE-M technology allows handle noticeably high bandwidths.
Voice assistants, the new way to interact with technology
AI has been seen at this fair under different perspectives, but if there has been one that has been especially abundant that is that of voice assistants.
Google, with its Google assistant, Amazon with Alexa, Microsoft with Cortana or Samsung even with its Bixby, are already familiar to users , even if they are used in a way not as massive as it could wait.
The operators, meanwhile, are using their technological resources to integrate voice assistants into their customer service platforms , so there is no need to go through infinite menus of options to reach to the configuration of a service parameter.Simply by asking with a natural language through the voice, the assistant will answer what I ask.
Telefonica showed Aura and the Movistar Home device, for example, while Orange was demonstrating Djingo, which already works within the My Orange App in the help section, and that it will be formatted smart speaker in the near future (first in France).
This speaker, similar to Google or Amazon, responds to speech in a natural and fluid way and in Orange's plans it is to integrate more functions and services and even integrate Djingo into home automation elements How can a mirror be.
An interesting MWC 2018, but without spectacularity
This edition of the MWC has not stood out for large "wows", but has been solid because of its content .Sparal events like 4TFN dedicated to emerging companies in search of funds for their projects are consolidated and The MWC has shown an activity as fervent as always outside of political circumstances.
Maybe we have to review the format for companies such as Samsung or Sony or Huawei, which are already considering whether the MWC is the best place to show the great news, but it is not really a problem.In the next few years the 5G services that will be implemented on next generation networks will be the protagonists and they will surely surprise us.
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