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.
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