The world’s largest wireless technology showcase started on Monday, with excitement over artificial intelligence’s (AI) potential to transform gadgets clashing with concerns over trade tensions fueled by the US.
The annual Mobile World Congress (MWC), which is expected to draw about 100,000 attendees in Barcelona, Spain, opened the day as a dense crowd packed the halls between stands blazing with screens from early morning, hunting out the latest devices and innovations from manufacturers or set to participate in debates about the future of the industry.
Telecom companies appealed for easier regulation and greater freedom to merge their businesses in Europe as they seek fatter margins and the scale to sustain infrastructure investment.
Photo: Bloomberg
“It is time for large European telcos to be allowed to consolidate and grow,” Telefonica SA chairman and CEO Marc Murtra said.
Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel Ltd chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal urged governments and regulators to “please lower taxes on this industry. Please give enough spectrum at affordable costs.”
Many exhibitors at the MWC hail from China, whose products would be hit by an additional 10-percent import tariff on top of the 10 percent already imposed by US President Donald Trump since he took office on Jan. 20.
China is home to major tech companies such as Huawei Technologies Co (華為), but it also assembles smartphones and other products sold by foreign firms, such as Apple Inc, and produces key components.
Higher costs for trade could impact the global tech and smartphone market if Trump keeps the China tariffs in place and extends them to other major economies like the EU.
US Federal Communications Commission Commissioner Brendan Carr said that Brussels regulations aimed at mostly US-based tech giants, notably the Digital Services Act, represented “censorship that is potentially coming down the pipe,” echoing a broadside last month from US Vice President J.D. Vance.
The European Commission last week said that it would stand up for its tech legislation even in the face of trade measures threatened by the White House.
EU Deputy Director-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology Renate Nikolay told a panel discussion that the “challenging geopolitical context” means “it’s crucial for Europe to ensure our tech sovereignty and our strategic autonomy in critical sectors.”
With no clear answers on trade, “our clients are wondering about the impact of developments in international politics... Nevertheless, there’s no panic for now,” Boston Consulting Group managing director and partner Clotilde Begon-Lours said.
AI features were inescapable in the avenues of the conference halls, with almost every stand proclaiming the technology’s integration everywhere from consumer devices to telecom networks’ innards.
Speaking by video link, Google futurologist Ray Kurzweil predicted a future within a decade when AI would “interact directly with our brain systems,” which he said could massively augment human intelligence.
More prosaically, phone makers were showing off how the technology would work for consumers in their latest models.
Samsung Electronics Co demonstrated a smartphone able to carry out simple tasks requested by the user in natural language, in line with the industry-wide trend toward AI “agents,” supposed to be able to act independently on users’ behalf.
Honor Terminal Co (榮耀) — a Huawei spinoff — said its new phones would incorporate a tool to detect AI “deepfake” images or video created with the likeness of real people.
Xiaomi Corp (小米), the world’s third-biggest smartphone maker after Apple and Samsung, unveiled a new range of smartphones equipped with high-quality cameras and their own suite of AI features.
“If you wander around the stands of the telecom operators and tech vendors, you’re really seeing demonstrations of concrete AI applications,” Begon-Lours said.
Real estate agent and property developer JSL Construction & Development Co (愛山林) led the average compensation rankings among companies listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) last year, while contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) finished 14th. JSL Construction paid its employees total average compensation of NT$4.78 million (US$159,701), down 13.5 percent from a year earlier, but still ahead of the most profitable listed tech giants, including TSMC, TWSE data showed. Last year, the average compensation (which includes salary, overtime, bonuses and allowances) paid by TSMC rose 21.6 percent to reach about NT$3.33 million, lifting its ranking by 10 notches
SEASONAL WEAKNESS: The combined revenue of the top 10 foundries fell 5.4%, but rush orders and China’s subsidies partially offset slowing demand Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) further solidified its dominance in the global wafer foundry business in the first quarter of this year, remaining far ahead of its closest rival, Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. TSMC posted US$25.52 billion in sales in the January-to-March period, down 5 percent from the previous quarter, but its market share rose from 67.1 percent the previous quarter to 67.6 percent, TrendForce said in a report. While smartphone-related wafer shipments declined in the first quarter due to seasonal factors, solid demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) devices and urgent TV-related orders
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic fuel stations are this week to rise NT$0.2 and NT$0.3 per liter respectively, after international crude oil prices increased last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices last week snapped a two-week losing streak as the geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine turned increasingly tense, CPC said in a statement. News that some oil production facilities in Alberta, Canada, were shut down due to wildfires and that US-Iran nuclear talks made no progress also helped push oil prices to a significant weekly gain, Formosa said
MINERAL DIPLOMACY: The Chinese commerce ministry said it approved applications for the export of rare earths in a move that could help ease US-China trade tensions Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) is today to meet a US delegation for talks in the UK, Beijing announced on Saturday amid a fragile truce in the trade dispute between the two powers. He is to visit the UK from yesterday to Friday at the invitation of the British government, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. He and US representatives are to cochair the first meeting of the US-China economic and trade consultation mechanism, it said. US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that a new round of trade talks with China would start in London beginning today,
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