In addition to 5G, what else is there to watch at MWC 2017?

On the 27th of this month, the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) will open in Barcelona. At this conference, in addition to smartphones, which are the highlight, people inside and outside the industry will also turn their attention to 5G networks. However, in the view of many analysts, the highlights of MWC 2017 are far more than just 5G. Analysts from CCS Insight believe that the enhanced version of 4G networks will still be the focus. In addition, IoT devices will also become a major highlight of this exhibition.

4G network will continue to play a leading role

The first batch of 5G networks will be officially deployed in 2020, and countries such as Russia, South Korea and the United Kingdom will start large-scale 5G network testing as early as next year.

At a recent conference, Ben Wood of CCS Insight said that most mobile network operators (MNOs) will find it difficult to find a business case to support large-scale deployment of 5G networks before 2020, so Gigabit LTE will remain the focus of mobile network development during this period.

In the UK, mobile market leader EE is preparing to test Gigabit LTE technology on its own LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network.

EE's LTE-A network uses carrier aggregation technology, which can increase the existing 4G speed to 150Mbps (under ideal conditions). Theoretically, its maximum speed can reach 300Mbps, which is more than twice the speed of the existing 4G network, and the speed of Gigabit LTE is more than three times that of the 300Mbps LTE-A network.

At the end of last month, mobile chip giant Qualcomm also joined forces with Ericsson, Netgear and Australian operator Telstra to demonstrate the huge potential of Gigabit LTE.

In the demonstration, a Netgear mobile router equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon X16 LTE modem and 802.11ac Wi-Fi technology achieved upload/download speeds of 127Mbps/930Mbps on Telstra's 4G network. Qualcomm said that smartphones equipped with X16 LTE modems will be available later this year.

"Gigabit LTE is an excellent opportunity for mobile operators to recoup their 4G network investments and will be one of the hottest tech themes this year as major operators around the world begin network upgrades," Wood said.

Samsung Galaxy S8 is absent, what smartphones should we look at?

Since the first MWC, mobile phones have always been the main attraction. However, due to the absence of Samsung's new flagship Galaxy S8, which exclusively uses the Snapdragon 835 chip, most manufacturers at this MWC are probably "squeezing out the toothpaste". Judging from the current trend, the hardware innovation of smartphones has stagnated, and innovation in services will become the trend in the future.

Wood believes that the mobile phones at this year's MWC will remain the same, but there will still be innovative entry points in the body. For example, ultra-narrow bezel design will become a major trend, and functions such as dual cameras and iris recognition may become standard features of flagship phones.

In addition, Nokia's return is also one of the focuses of this year's MWC, but current rumors show that the four mobile phones displayed by the former king at MWC are all aimed at the low-end market, and the new king may not appear. Wood believes that Nokia's market share may reach about 5% before 2020.

In addition, VR will release its energy again at MWC. It will be closely integrated with mobile phones, and 360-degree photos will become a new feature of smartphones. Analysts also predict that smartphones with 360-degree cameras will be available by the end of this year.

Will IoT applications explode?

Unlike Wood, Martin Garner, another CCS analyst, places more emphasis on the Internet of Things, which is already a regular at MWC. However, Garner believes that the "Internet of Things" is still a vague term, and we should see more products with practical applications this year.

"We've heard enough about embracing the Internet of Things, and this year's show will see the major players in the IoT market show some real action," said Garner. "This year's MWC will see the IoT shine in retail, healthcare, agriculture, buildings, utilities, smart cities, connected cars, cloud service platforms and other fields."

CCS believes that the focus of operators in the IoT market this year is smart cities, and Garner said that smart cities are a natural extension of operators' business models. However, he also reminded operators to speed up, otherwise technology giants such as Google may take the lead.