MWC 2023, Sunday 26 February

Welcome to CCS Insight’s daily coverage of MWC 2023. As always, our analysts are on the ground in Barcelona, and will be covering all major tech announcements and noteworthy themes from the show floor. This year we also have a stand at the event; for more on our activities at MWC and details of where to find us, see here.

Today’s article focusses on news from press events ahead of MWC. Several big tech players made pre-emptive announcements to generate interest before the show officially started, ranging from 6G milestones and novel smartphone designs to entire rebranding campaigns. Below is our analysts’ take on these developments.

Nokia Refreshes Its Brand

On Sunday, Nokia announced a refreshed strategy intended to emphasize itself as a leader in business-to-business technology, with a focus on digitization. The company also delivered an update to its network strategy, which focussed on building networks that sense, think and act — with Nokia viewing the “sensing” capabilities of the network as a major opportunity, particularly in relation to the industrial metaverse.

Pekka Lundmark, president and CEO of Nokia, said, “We see the potential of to transform business, industry and society, with an opportunity for significant gains in productivity, sustainability and accessibility”.

Although Nokia is well-established in the telecom industry, with network operator customers worldwide, it’s far less recognized in enterprise segments. The brand refresh indicates Nokia’s intention to raise its profile in enterprise and market itself as a collaborative player. This is reinforced by its commitment to open up network APIs for developers.

The refresh looks like a smart move, coming at a time when the telecom industry is still learning how to combine network performance with cloud accessibility and present the final service as valuable to enterprises. When it comes to building networks tailored for digital industry, Nokia’s emphasis on networks being more adaptable, autonomous and accessible is a step in the right direction.

Nokia has confirmed that, given its heritage in consumer devices, companies licensing the Nokia brand for consumer products, such as HMD Global, will continue to use the classic logo, with the rebrand focussing mainly on its business-to-business services.

Motorola Teases Intriguing Rollable Smartphone Concept

As we predicted ahead of MWC, despite smartphones becoming a mature and almost boring category, a slew of foldable designs and prototypes were always going to capture attendees’ imaginations. We expect them to feature prominently in media coverage from the event, although many will never be commercialized.

Motorola has delivered an early example of this with its rollable smartphone concept. This compact device has a motorized rollable screen that extends to make the phone a similar size to standard smartphone dimensions.

We caution that this is a conceptual prototype that’s a long way from being a viable commercial product, but it underlines just how keen device-makers are to explore new ideas. The new phone is also an opportunity for Motorola to grab the headlines and support its efforts to associate its brand with more-premium products, a segment where it has already made a lot of progress with its recent Razr foldable phones.

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon X75 Modem-RF System

Qualcomm announced its new Snapdragon X75 Modem-RF System ahead of MWC, following with the announcement that the previous X70 model would feature in all variants of Samsung’s new Galaxy S23 smartphone. The new product underlines Qualcomm’s leadership in the segment, as frequency band complexity increases and applications continue to diversify beyond smartphones to vehicles, smart glasses, private networks and more. Snapdragon X75 features support for 3GPP Release 17 and 18, and Qualcomm promoted it as the first modem to support 5G-Advanced.

Snapdragon X75’s most significant feature is its enhanced AI capabilities, with the introduction of a dedicated Tensor processing unit. This provides over twice the processing speed of Snapdragon X70 and is designed to maximize the quality of the 5G connection. For example, on-device learning helps the system quicky select the best network depending on location. And AI-based sensor-assisted beam management can extend access to millimetre-wave and sub-6 GHz cells, keeping a user connected for longer.

Qualcomm’s investment in radio frequency front-end technology has helped maintain its market leadership. The company’s AI pedigree is now being used to extend this competitive advantage; Samsung’s decision to use Qualcomm for all of its flagship Galaxy S variants underpins the significance of the latter’s position. These announcements raise the stakes for competitors, particularly MediaTek and Apple, as they aim to compete with Qualcomm’s premium-tier offerings.

HMD Global Sharpens Focus on Smartphone Repairability

HMD Global has unveiled three new smartphones: the Nokia G22, C32 and C22, priced at €179, €139 and €129, respectively. These phones continue the company’s strategy of targeting the more affordable Android smartphone segment. The most notable feature is the decision to make the Nokia G22 a more repairable device. This builds on the company’s work with its Circular programme, which encourages users to recycle their Nokia phones.

CCS Insight’s Connected Consumer Radar survey confirms this is a smart move, with about half of mobile phone users in Western Europe saying they’d like to be able to have their device repaired at a reasonable cost if they break outside the warranty period.

HMD Global describes the Nokia G22 as being “purposefully designed with repairability at its core”. It allows people to more easily change the battery, screen or charging port themselves, aided through a partnership with repair specialists iFixit. Users still need special tools and some skill to be able to make a repair. The FixKits will cost €5, with the following replacement parts available: screen (€50), battery (€50) and charging port (€20).

The trailblazer for this approach is the Fairphone 4 smartphone, with a very modular design that can be easily disassembled to replace certain components. The Nokia G22 is still a highly integrated device, but HMD Global has taken measures to make repairs easier, for example, by using flexible connectors, significantly less glue and fewer screws.

We expect sustainability to be a major theme at MWC and are optimistic that we’ll see more credible environmental initiatives, rather than the endless “greenwashing” of previous years.

1/2 Great to see @HMDGlobal taking its commitment to offering more repairable smartphones to the next level. Nokia G22 designed to allow consumers to change the battery, screen or charging port themselves aided through a partnership with @iFixit https://t.co/iySbfniDRm #MWC23 pic.twitter.com/OFEuMziFeJ

— Ben Wood (@benwood) February 25, 2023

Vodafone to Show Off Prototype “5G Network in a Box”

About the size of a Wi-Fi router, this clever piece of technology was initially shown to analysts at a pre-MWC briefing in London. It comprises a software-defined radio chipset developed by Lime Microsystems and a Raspberry Pi 4 computer. It can offer frequencies spanning an impressive 600 MHz to 3.8 GHz. Developed at Vodafone’s research and development centre in Malaga, it’s targeted at small businesses seeking more-affordable private network solutions than others on the market. The device could also offer households extended coverage by providing an additional broadband link at times when many residents are online.

Great to get the lowdown on one of Vodafone’s lead #MWC23 demos this afternoon. It’s a prototype “5G network in a box” about the size of a home router with software-defined radio and Raspberry Pi computer. 👏 pic.twitter.com/teJzNwFBPo

— Kester Mann (@kestermann) February 17, 2023

NTT Docomo and Nokia Confirm 6G Milestones

For the first time, 6G will emerge as one of MWC’s big themes. NTT Docomo is planning several demonstrations at its stand to show off the technology’s potential. Alongside Nokia, it recently confirmed two 6G milestones: artificial intelligence (AI) in the radio interface and use of sub-terahertz spectrum to significantly boost network capacity. The commercial launch of 6G isn’t expected for another six or seven years, but research initiatives are already underway. However, discussions at MWC will be held against a backdrop of rising scepticism as the industry struggles to generate revenue from even 5G.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Athonet Acquisition

Hewlett Packard Enterprise recently announced its acquisition of Athonet, a private cellular network company delivering mobile core networks to enterprises and communications providers. The move is designed to expand the former’s connected-edge-to-cloud capability, and will be combined with its existing network portfolios and added to its GreenLake platform. The move not only provides the company with new technology, but also expands the sales channel for its private mobile network solutions in telecommunications and enterprise.

This move is further evidence of intense activity in the private mobile network market, and supports CCS Insight’s expectation that it’ll be a highly prominent theme at MWC and beyond. We expect new contenders to come to market and existing providers to compete by assembling assets both organically and through acquisition. CCS Insight’s research notes that the market for private mobile networks accounted for $2.7 billion in infrastructure revenue in 2022; this will grow to $10 billion by 2027.

Celona Launches “Most Complete” Portfolio of 5G Private Network Solutions

Celona unveiled what it claims is “the industry’s first all-inclusive portfolio of indoor and outdoor 5G NR products” for the US and global markets. It includes private 5G access points; core and control plane services, as well as an Open RAN-compliant RAN intelligent controller service optimized for enterprise use; and a cloud-native, Kubernetes-based orchestration engine. The latter enables remote installation of access points and edge software for multiple enterprise sites, alongside allowing for the provisioning of Celona SIMs and e-SIMs.

As the private mobile network market evolves, it’s vital that enterprises can get built-for-purpose hardware that integrates with their existing network investments, supports a range of uses and deployment models and lowers costs. Celona’s software-led approach uses a deployment framework intended to be similar to wireless LAN as deployed by IT organizations. The breadth of its portfolio means that complex deployment models can be supported, including redundant clusters and service slicing, without any administrative overhead.

Bullitt Announces Trio of Products Supporting Satellite Messaging

Bullitt, the company behind Cat-branded rugged mobile phones, has unveiled two new smartphones: the Motorola defy 2, which starts from $599, and the Cat S75, from €599 or £549. It also introduced a connected accessory, the Motorola defy satellite link, priced at $99, following in the footsteps of Apple’s Emergency SOS feature, which enables iPhone 14 users to send text messages over a satellite connection.

Bullitt is the first Android phone-maker to offer commercial smartphones with satellite messaging. It has worked with chipset-maker MediaTek to integrate the technology and uses connectivity solutions from Skylo to access satellite constellations provided by Inmarsat. It first showed off its Satellite Messenger service at CES 2023. Apple’s announcement has triggered a flurry of news from Android players including Qualcomm, which we expect will work with numerous smartphone-makers, as well as Samsung, which also plans to enable satellite messaging capability on its phones using Exynos chips.

We expect further announcements in this area this week at MWC. We note that shortly before the event, MediaTek announced its MT6825 standalone chipset for two-way satellite connectivity on 4G and 5G smartphones. It’s designed for text-based communication, and based on 3GPP’s non-terrestrial network standard.

Bullitt now has a window of opportunity to exploit its early lead, and will be focussing on expanding its satellite messaging service to scenarios beyond emergencies. It’s offering very competitive service plans to rival Garmin’s inReach devices and service. The Motorola defy satellite link is particularly interesting, offering an affordable accessory that can be sold through new channels, providing a differentiated product with ongoing subscription revenue.

1/2 @Bullitt_Group unveils a trio of devices with satellite messaging as promised at CES. Meet the Motorola Defy ($599) & Motorola Defy Satellite Link ($99). Love the Link device which is a compact Bluetooth accessory offering two-way sat messaging, location sharing & SOS. #MWC23 pic.twitter.com/THBlrsGACZ

— Ben Wood (@benwood) February 24, 2023

Need for Post-Quantum Cryptography Readiness Highlighted

As part of a task force set up alongside IBM and Vodafone, the GSMA published a whitepaper ahead of MWC assessing the potential impact quantum computers could have on cryptography. The report provides practical intelligence from candidate algorithms for post-quantum cryptography, which were selected by NIST in July 2022.

As the capabilities of quantum computers increase, the risk that they could be used to disrupt security also grows. Potential business threats include data being captured today for future decryption and the compromising of keys used to sign software updates. The GSMA recommends telecom operators establish a cryptographic inventory to understand where algorithms are used and develop relevant risk assessments. Although improved security hygiene is a constant need, given the generally limited understanding of quantum computing this guidance could be particularly useful.

If you’d like to discuss any of the stories we touch on here, please get in touch. And if you’re attending MWC: please enjoy the show, and come and see us at our stand!