Over 100,000 attendees and AI as a determined hero

MWC, the largest global event of the connectivity and digital technology industry held this week in the city of Barcelona, ​​concluded the 2024 edition this Thursday with approximately 101,000 attendees, exceeding company forecasts.

The GSMA Association in a statement celebrated the “energy and vitality” of an event that was close to the record of 109,000 visitors that were registered in the year before the pandemic and featured more than 2,700 exhibitors, sponsors and partners, as well as Approximately 1,100 speakers, 40% of whom were women.

The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI), set to transform most areas of technology, as well as strategies to make the deployment of high-capacity 5G networks and the high investments it requires profitable, marked a congress in which Asian companies once again Participated and demonstrated their strength.

“We are proud to host this special event, which once again delivered four extraordinary days of debate, thought leadership, inspiration and deal-making,” said John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA.

59% of attendees represented industries in the mobile ecosystem at a conference that becomes more consolidated each year as a technology showcase that transcends the telephone sector.

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AI takes center stage at MWC 2024 fair

Beyond the prototype of the small-sized flying car by Aleph Aeronautics, which awakened dreams of the future in Hall 6 of the Barcelona fair, artificial intelligence emerged as the most disruptive technology of the present.

At the Congress, many companies presented some innovations related to incorporating generative or machine learning models into their products or to their production processes to gain efficiency.

Mobile phones like Samsung already include AI tools capable of simultaneously translating calls, improving message writing and photo editing. Other prototypes, such as the one presented by Deutsche Telekom, anticipate an era in which an intelligent assistant can replace all applications on a device.

Analysts gathered this Thursday in the last session of the MWC dedicated to analyzing the lessons learned this year in Barcelona, ​​agreed to point to artificial intelligence as the great “winner” of the event.

“I am impressed by the way the industry has rallied around the opportunities of AI. There has been a huge amount of structured thinking and use case validation. “They’ve got work to do, and ChatGPT has only been around for 18 months,” said Brian Partridge, an analyst at S&P Global.

Roy Chua of consulting firm Avidthink estimates that AI will remain center stage in Congress for at least the next five years, while GSMA Intelligence chief Peter Jarich described 6G as a “loser” for which it is not. Still ready. A market that is still struggling to deploy 5G has disappeared from the metaverse, maps, and crypto world, almost without a presence in Congress.

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Companies want to expand 5G network

The importance of the coming revolution to broader sectors of the tech world and economy was underlined by speakers such as Demis Hassabis, co-founder of Google DeepMind and one of the fathers of AI, who further said that new intelligent models will be clinical in just two years. Designing drugs ready for trials.

Microsoft President Brad Smith also confirmed on the main stage at MWC that it is going to invest more than $5 billion to build data centers in Europe that can manage the huge processing capacity required for AI.

The deployment of high capacity networks was another task of Congress. Many technologies, such as autonomous vehicles and solutions for smart cities, augmented reality applications, and industrial automation, depend on their widespread use going forward.

However, 5G coverage in Europe lags behind other regions – it covers about 20% of the territory, compared to 40% in the United States and 50% in China – and many voices in the region point to fragmentation of the European market. Are. One of the brakes on investment in infrastructure.

The European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Frenchman Thierry Breton, visited the MWC and expressed his support for moving towards the integration of the European communications market, making it possible to take advantage of economies of scale.

Among advances in networks, Chinese multinational Huawei attracted attention with the first commercial 5.5G infrastructure, which promises to deliver speeds of up to 10 Gbps, compared to 1 Gbps for 5G, as well as an area of ​​more than 12,000 square meters. Same with the huge pavilion. ., once again the biggest of MWC.

With information from EFE,

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