At Moblie World Congress 24, the Shabodi team had a highly productive week. We gained valuable knowledge by engaging in insightful discussions with our current customers, partners, industry analysts, influencers, and prospects. Amidst averaging 20,000 steps a day across eight halls, we also had the pleasure of reconnecting with old friends and colleagues while making new acquaintances. We firmly believe nurturing friendships and relationships is essential in personal and professional life.

While juggling meetings, I seized the opportunity to attend sessions and explore the latest innovations at various booths. Reflecting on the broad spectrum of event topics at MWC24, my bias leans toward Network APIs and their pivotal role in driving monetization for MNOs and delivering impactful outcomes to enterprise customers. As I relay my insights and observations, I aim to impart valuable best practices from our experiences. [ Your “shaman“]

The current challenge with network APIs stems from the diverse set of APIs published by different network equipment vendors and operators, making it difficult for developers to create applications that operate seamlessly across various networks and technologies. This hinders the efficiency and scalability of application development within the telecommunications industry. However, by establishing simplified and standardized Network APIs, developers would gain the capability to write applications once and deploy them across multiple operators, equipment vendors, and network technologies, fostering interoperability and innovation. My focus on network APIs is separate from the already prevalent SMS and location APIs standardized by CPaaS vendors.

With that as a background, Let’s get started.

The first theme for MWC is “5G and Beyond“

I emphasized the crucial need for MNOs to realize the returns on their 5G investments. During one of his keynotes, the observations made by Deutsche Telecom’s CEO, Timotheus Höttges, are particularly telling. He highlighted that “60 percent of European telcos are no longer earning enough to cover their capital investment costs,” with an additional €200 billion needed to complete the rollout of 5G in Europe alone. Flattening or decreasing revenues from mobile plans has led MNOs to explore AI and Network API as viable alternative revenue streams for driving growth.

Additionally, the adoption of private 5G has been hindered by the absence of 5G-enabled devices and the lack of ROI for enterprise customers. Nevertheless, businesses recognize private 5G as the fundamental technology for driving business transformation. Leveraging AI with multi-access edge computing (MEC) on this foundation will facilitate crucial business use cases.

Here are some guidelines for those considering private 5G network deployments. This is not a comprehensive list.

1. Prioritize business solutions you want to run on the newly planned network and ensure you are going beyond simple connectivity to get a return on your investment.
2. Private 5G networks will interconnect with existing networks within the enterprise, such as Wi-Fi, wired, cloud and satellite. Data from the private 5G network will travel through wired networks in the backhaul and then to the cloud. It’s essential to ensure the data travels efficiently and at the right speed and latency and that the same network policies are used through this mix of connections to make the most of private 5G and AI technology. If businesses only see private 5G as a separate solution, it could slow down their progress and the benefits they get from it.
3. The security architecture of a private 5G network should integrate with the current security standards and frameworks. 
4. Ensure daily operations and management of private 5G deployment is IT-friendly.
5. For private 5G deployments in factories or facilities with existing Operational Technology (OT) networks, ensure the OT security, interoperability with OT protocols, and diverse connectivity requirements are considered.
6. Choose a network equipment vendor and solution provider who is agile and willing to listen to your problems. The network equipment (Radio, Core, Networking) designed for operator networks may not be the right fit for your private enterprise deployment and may increase the cost of your project.

At MWC24, the momentum of Network API and the use cases from MNOs and others was impressive. However, this momentum does not indicate that the monetization problem is solved or that the industry has figured out the money flow. To figure out the business model, MNOs need to engage an ecosystem of players, including developer platform providers, developers, and integrators, both small and established.

Below are some use cases shared during various sessions involving Network APIs. One common aspect across these use cases is the need for APIs that provide the required bandwidth, latency, location, and critical connectivity. Additionally, real-time video or images appear to be the underlying traffic in these use cases. Furthermore, metering APIs are also highlighted as crucial, as they play a key role in generating the bills related to these network services.

1. Virtual Reality (VR) use case in a stadium – fans playing the soccer game with immersive experiences.

2. Drone-as-a-Service – Using drones for safety, inspection, monitoring, delivery, and transportation. Excellent insights from the British Telecom drone program, Telefonica on Network APIs, and others in the connected industries session. 

3. Product quality detection – The solution dynamically adjusts the camera bandwidth based on the activity in the camera’s field of view using Network APIs. The enhanced video feed is then sent to AI models to analyze and deliver the outcomes to the business. According to GSMA intelligence, on average, 0.15kWh of energy is needed to transfer 1 GB of data across the radio access networks. So, adjusting data transmission when required saves operators or enterprises energy costs.

In addition to other applications using network APIs, it is crucial to identify key applications that meet the needs of consumers and businesses, ultimately generating additional revenue. Consider the impact of bandwidth today without game-changing applications like Netflix or YouTube.

The second theme for MWC is “Humanizing AI.”

Undeniably, AI will replace specific job tasks and complement other aspects of job roles. Therefore, continuous skill development is crucial to utilize automated processes effectively. Here are a few topics that caught my attention:

1. There need to be safer rules for the use of AI to prevent deep fake images, information, and videos and to protect children from such fraud.

2. Use generative AI for new digital assistants and chatbots to improve the customer and employee experience and automate some marketing tasks.

3. Lower the energy consumption and improve performance through AI in RAN/O-RAN. (Note: According to GSMA, in an operator network, RAN consumes 70-75% of energy, and roughly 20% of the operator’s operational expenditure is on energy!)

As I mentioned in the interview with Fast Mode, my pre-MWC predictions for the year, I expect: 

1. Consolidations and partnerships in the telecom industry
2. Pre-packaged and validated solutions will be available to accelerate private 5G application network adoptions.
3. Continued innovations using AI and edge computing
4. There will be debates on Network APIs and programmable networks, and the first movers will gain a competitive advantage.

Overall, it was a great MWC 24 on all fronts. We’re looking forward to moving the industry forward and continuing the dialogue at MWC Las Vegas.