Mobile World Congress 2018
The world's largest event dedicated to the mobile and telecommunications industries
« MWC Highlights, Market Trends & Mobile Economy »
Digital Business Unit

Summary
1. Why go to the MWC?
2. MWC 2018 highlights
3. Most important trends of MWC
4. Mobile Economy – Key Figures 2017 (GSMA)
5. Conclusion

1. Why go to the MWC?
Key Figures (GSMA)
The 2018 edition of the (MWC) in Barcelona attracted
a total of 107,000 visitors from 205 countries :
 2,400 exhibitors (2,300 in 2017)
 7,700 CEOs (6,100 in 2017)
 55% Total senior-level positions (58% in 2017)
 Over 320 speakers
 More than 3,500 international media and
industry analysts
GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications)
800 operators with more 300 companies in the broader mobile
ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software
companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well
as organisations in adjacent industry sectors
2018 107,000
 The biggest and most relevant mobile industry trade show
The event will have contributed over EUR 471 million and some 13,000 part-time jobs to the local economy

1. Why go to the MWC?
8 Topics - 4 days
(Barcelona - Fira Gran Via)
 The most discussed
topics: 5G, IOT,
artificial intelligence,
security, VR/AR
(content) & new
business model (digital
transformation)

1. Why go to the MWC?
Startup event
(Barcelona - Fira Monjuic)
4YFN is the startup event of Mobile World
Capital Barcelona and Mobile World Congress,
a place where startups, investors, corporations
and public institutions can discover, create
and launch new ventures together
Brussels start-ups registered @ 4YFN :
Key figures 2018
 More than 20.000 attendees
 600 investors
 600 exhibitors from more than 45 countries
and 12 international delegations
 Main topics : AI, blockchain, IoT,
technology transfer and corporate
venturing
 With the presence of big companies like
Airbus, Nestle, Seat, Google

1. Why go to the MWC?
Other activities
Women4Tech offers MWC attendees strategic sessions focused
on championing diversity in the mobile and tech industry (4 days)
+ GLOMO Awards, Partner programmes, Networking events, etc
The NEXTech Hall 8,0 NEXTech Hall 8.0 to explore exhibitors demonstrating rising technologies
including drones, virtual reality/augmented reality, robotics, cognitive computing, artificial
intelligence and more
The Ministerial Programme offers a unique forum for ministers, regulators, international
organisations and CEOs from around the world to discuss key developments and policy trends
in the mobile sector. The 2018 Ministerial Programme hosted delegations from 181 countries
and international organisations, including 71 ministers and 85 regulatory authority heads, with
total attendance exceeding 2,000 delegates
Companies in the Innovation City (Cisco IoT, Huawei, KT Corporation, Sierra Wireless &
Turkcell) will showcase a spectacular array of innovative, cutting edge products and services
that demonstrate how mobile is creating a better future
The Youth Mobile Festival (YoMo) returned to Barcelona for a second year, furthering its
goal to inspire young people to pursue education and careers in science, technology,
engineering, art/design, and math

1. Why go to the MWC?
Main benefits for brussels-based companies
1. The Belgian Pavilion 2018
3 co-organizers : hub.brussels, AWEX, FIT
42 Belgian companies - 15 Brussels companies
AGIFY
BELGIAN MOBILE ID
CALYPSO
FAMOCO
IOT FACTORY
JOYN BELGIUM
SATADSL
XCONIFY
XPERTBILLING
NETAXIS SOLUTIONS
PYCO GROUP
QUAMOTION
COMMUNITHINGS
CULLEN INTERNATIONAL
E-TECHNOLOGING
120,000 square meter
exhibition space
HALL 7 – 7G71
And 2 other Brussels-based companies:
BICS (Proximus), & RIAKTR (Real Impact Analytics)

1. Why go to the MWC?
Main benefits for brussels-based companies
2. MWC Brokerage Event
7 Brussels-based companies
participated to 53 B2B meetings
360XP
Belgian ID Mobile
Nasara
Rever
Pregiotek
Quamotion
Xpertbilling
http://www.brusselsnetwork.be/
+ Networking event with Systematic
(French cluster)

1. Why go to the MWC?
Main benefits for brussels-based companies
3. Meet the « Mobile » Ecosystem : Prospects, Customers, Partners, Competitors, Press
4. Learn about the major trends/innovation/vision of the mobile industry market
+ more than 300 speakers
from all Industries :
BMW
CNN
Daimler
Google
Ikea
Itsme (BE)
Pernod Ricard
NY Times
Virgin
Alibaba
CITI
Facebook
JCDecaux
Red Cross
Salesforce
Softbank
VISA
etc
38 Keynote Speakers

2. MWC 2018 highlights
Most Innovative Smartphones
SAMSUNG Galaxy S9
AR Emoji : virtual avatar with different
expressions
Bixby 2,0 (Vision) : a tool within the
camera app that uses optical image
recognition
SmartThings App : the new app
aims to be a one-stop-shop for
controlling everything in your smart
home
Intelligent Scan : biometric
authentification (iris/finger/facial
5.8-inch QHD+ display (best
smartphone display)
Dual speakers (stereo/Dolby Atmos
=360 sound) – 4K Video
Energizer's Power
Max P16K Pro
16000 mAh Battery (5X)
And many other smartphones : LG V30s (AI CAM: Object Recognition, Shopping Recommendations), SikurPhone (design for security), Sony
Xperia XZ2 (vidéo 4K HDR/ 960 fps), Asus Zenphone Max M1, WIKO View 2 pro, LG K8 K10, BlackBerry Key One, Alcatel 5, HMD
Nokia 6/7/8 & 8110, HANMAC (French Bling bling smartphone), Land Rover Explore, etc
VIVO Apex (mi 2018)
Concept phone (mi 2018) :
The future of smartphones?
Borderless (OLED 98%)
Retractable front-facing
camera
‘Half-screen' fingerprint
scanne
Screen SoudCasting
Technology
MWC has presented many technical evolutions (display, security, camera,
sound, memory, battery) and more AR integrated applications

2. MWC 2018 highlights
Most Innovative Devices
+ smart drones, safety clothes, kids tracker, etc but few
new smartchwatches (LG G7, FITBIT Adidas Edition, etc)
Sony Xperia Ear Duo
“Dual listening” experience :
The earphone allows you to listen to
conversations and music at the same
time
Huawei MediaPad M5 and M5 Pro
2 new tablets are built for video
2,560x1,600-pixel screen resolution and very high pixel density
of 280 PPI for the M5 Pro and 359 PPI for the M5
4 speakers (Harman Kardon) on the 10.8-inch models
ScanDisk
The world’s fastest
400GB microSD card
ARCHOS Citee Connect
5-inches display, 3G connection,
Android 8.0, 6,000 mAh battery & top
speed : 25 km/h
SAMSUNG DeX Pad
Dock to turn your phone into a
PC environment
HTC Focus
Best-in-class Displays
to Standalone VR
(including the battery,
processor, graphics,
and display)
For Chinese Market
Price : + €500
ARCHOS Safe-t
Cryptocurrency hardware
wallet
Motorola Health Mod
The Health Mod can measure vital
signs such as blood pressure,
temperature, and oxygen saturation
BMW Digital Key

3. Most important trends of MWC
Trends 1 : 5G is (still) everywhere
Libby Robinson - The implementation of 5G
“Last year focused a lot on the concept of 5G so it will be interesting to see how that
is progressing into planning and implementation”
Huawei announces its first 5G chip (Balong 5G01)
for mobile devices at MWC (download speed : 2.3Gbps)
Huawei CEO Richard Yu says “that his company has invested
$600 million in the network technology, which will likely be
used by everything from self-driving cars to mobile devices to
smart homes” “And revealed plans to launch a 5G
smartphone in the second half of the year”
SK Telecom Will Demo
5G 360 Video Call
360-degree video call based
on a pilot 5G network
established in cooperation
with Samsung Electronics.
The 5G call will allow visitors
to make on-site 3-D calls
(more immersive)
Qualcomm Shows Significant
5G User Experience Gains
NTT DOCOMO (5G/VR)
Humanoid robot that uses 5G to
mirror the operator's
movements in real-time and
perform tasks remotely
And many other 5G cases : Intel, Orange, Nokia (autonomous
toy cars), Deutsche Telekom (robotic Arm), Ericsson, etc

3. Most important trends of MWC
Trends 1 : 5G is (still) everywhere
Main Benefits of 5G
 Speed (individual user experience) : 20Gb/s70Gb/s
(+100x faster than current 4G & 10x faster than the
broadband connectivity)
 Connection : +100 billion devices
 Latency : 1 milliseconds (4G = 25 ms)
 Applications : self-driving cars, telemedicine, VR reaching,
drones, home broadband, massive IOT, industrial
automation, etc
 Market : GSMA Intelligence : 1.2 billion 5G connections by
2025, accounting for 40% of the global population, or
approximately 2.7 billion people
 Innovation : network slicing (ITU News)
CNet
“Ericsson released a new study on 5G entitled “Unlocking
5G’s Revenue Potential: A Roadmap For Operators”
“T-Mobile announced 5G for 30 cities”

3. Most important trends of MWC
Trends 1 : 5G is (still) everywhere
5G Will Have A Big Impact On VR
Cher Wang (HTC CEO) talks about how 5G will change
the smartphone and VR markets :“Today we are creating
VIVE Reality: the convergence of VR/AR, 5G and AI”
Milestones for 5G
• Mid 2018 “The first standardizations
for 5G by June 2018” (3GPP)
• “Europe will make radio spectrum
available for 5G by 2020” (European
Commission)
• 2020-2025 Roll-out of 5G
infrastructure :  Brussels or Antwerp
in 2020?
• 2025 Gigabit Society (5G in major
cities and along major transport
routes)
“Intel announcing a partnership with NTT Docomo to deliver 5G
for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo”
“Ericsson CEO Börje Ekholm announced
that 5G is open for business"

3. Most important trends of MWC
Trends 2 : AI integration
HoloBox -
SK TELEKOM
A futuristic AI assistant
(Wendy) enabling
dialogue with the
hologram avatar
Huawei AI Car
Huawei used its smartphone’s AI
software (Mate 10 pro) to learn to
recognize hundreds of objects and the
avoid them while driving a Car
Mercedes-Benz’s car assistant
Natural speech recognition (the voice
control is also capable of learning :
driver's behavior/preferences)
Samsung S9 - Bixby (AI assistant)
New feature : text translations with
real-time overlay
+ other new AI smartphones : LG
V30, Asus Zenphone
Myxyty Pod
Modular Home assistant
Archos Hello
Smart Speaker with
Display (powered by
Android 8.0 - Oreo)
Onkyo VC-NX01
A smart assistant that lives
around your neck
Device Management
Personal Profiling
Content Censorship/Detection
Personal Photographing
Audio Analytic
Gartner Highlights 10 Uses for AI-Powered Smartphones (2018)
"Digital Me" Sitting on the Device
User Authentication
Emotion Recognition
Natural-Language Understanding
Augmented Reality (AR) and AI Vision

3. Most important trends of MWC
Trends 3 : industrial IOT use cases
SK telecom/uLike Korea
IoT livestock
management system
LiveCare service helps farmers
to monitor the body temperature
and acidity level (pH) of cows to
detect signs of illness, determine
optimal timing of insemination,
and recognize signs of calving
And other key players such as Sierra Wireless, Huawei, Ericsson,
Dell, IBM, NEC and Intel demonstrated a range of IOT applications
Best Mobile Innovation for Enterprise
(Glomo Award)
WISeKey & Mastercard
WISeKey (Hublot, Bulgari) Announces
Integration of MasterCard's Wearable
End-to-End Payment System
(Wis.watch Software)
CaixaBank/Garmin
& Visa
CaixaBank, Garmin and
Visa are launching Garmin
Pay in Spain
ESET Smart TV
Security
Antivirus protection, Anti-
ransomware, multi-device
scanning, Anti-phishing
Cisco launches NB-IoT (LPWAN)
platform worldwide
Liquid and pressurised fuels
Parking monitoring
Smart Bins
Alarms and event detectors
Gas Metering
Environmental Monitoring
Water Metering
Smoke and Fire Alarms
Practical applications of NB-IoT according to Vodafone
NB-IoT is
expected to be
available in core
developed
countries and
cities by 2018
and reach its full
coverage by
2020 (Cisco)

4. Mobile Economy – Key Figures 2017 (GSMA)
Global Mobile Market
The number of unique mobile subscribers
will reach 5.9 billion by 2025, equivalent to
71% of the world’s population

4. Mobile Economy – Key Figures 2017 (GSMA)
Global Mobile Market
Growth will be driven by developing
countries, particularly India, China,
Pakistan, Indonesia and Bangladesh, as well
as Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America
(Europe : 85% 88% Of Subcriber penetration)
In 2019, 4G will become the leading mobile
network technology worldwide by number
of connections (more than 3 billion)

4. Mobile Economy – Key Figures 2017 (GSMA)
Global IOT Market
Scaling the Internet of Things (Asia-Pacific)
 25 billion IoT connections (cellular and non-cellular) by 2025
Asia Pacific will continue to be the largest regional IoT market by
number of connections

4. Mobile Economy – Key Figures 2017 (GSMA)
Impacts of mobile industry
Mobile contribution to economic growth ($3,6bn), employment (29M)
and public funding ($500bn : VAT & income/corporate tax)

Conclusion
 With more exhibitors and more CEOs but with less visitors than last year, MWC
remains the world's biggest annual mobile event
 MWC is the place to be for big announcements (new products, new
partnerships, new brands, etc)
 Mobile players showed how the technology will change consumers life :
 Important potential/new business model of 5G
 AI focus for the big telco players (also)
 Proliferation of IOT use cases (building, utilities, manufacturing, home, etc)
 Mobile economy continues to grow (driven by developing countries), and
contribute to economic growth (3,6TN) & direct jobs (11,2M) with a social impact
 Brussels-based companies were again satisfied with their presence at the
show (organization, networking, new contacts)
 4YFN, maybe a great opportunity to organize
a Brussels startup stand

If you would like to learn more about participating in the event as an exhibitor
(Belgian Pavillon), please contact the export team of hub.brussels :
Interested by MWC 2019?
Camille JEUNIAUX
Export Area Manager
cjeuniaux@sprb.brussels
Ariane LEONARD
Economic attaché @ Madrid
madrid@brussels-spain.com
MWC Brokerage Event (B2B meeting) :
Benjamin Carnec
International & Innovation adviser for ICT
Enterprise Europe Network
bcarnec@hub.brussels

Annex
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
At Mobile World Congress 2016 in
Barcelona, the mobile industry
became the first sector to
commit as a whole to the
Sustainable Development Goals

Annex
Apple (through HomePod) and Samsung are set to
join the smart speaker market in 2018 to compete with
the Amazon Echo and the Google Home devices
Key areas of innovation (GSMA)

Annex
AI – Key US Players (GSMA)
Financing more than doubled between 2016 and 2017 to
over $15 billion, with the US leading the way, followed
closely by China
While the AI industry is
currently dominated by
the big tech players in
the US (Google,
Amazon, Apple,
Facebook, Microsoft
and IBM) as well as the
Chinese ‘BAT’
companies (Baidu,
Alibaba and Tencent),
leading telcos
across the world are
also increasing their
focus on AI.