What To Expect at Mobile World Congress 2022

The experts anticipate the news: from 5G to 6G, more powerful processors, phones with better batteries, and even better cameras.

Between 40,000 and 60,000 people will meet in Barcelona from February 28 to March 3 to attend the next Mobile World Congress (MWC), where the highest representatives of technological innovation will anticipate the lines of the future scenario that awaits us. 

This will be responsible for more than 1,000 speakers, representatives of 150 countries, under the slogan “Connectivity Unleashed” (‘connectivity unleashed’).

However, the connection between devices will not be the only trend that will be addressed at the most important annual business meeting in the telecommunications industry. These are some of the novelties that we will be able to see at the MWC, according to the experts consulted by the UOC and whose opinions have been made known in a statement.

5G and 6G in the starting box

The implementation of 5G is already a reality, and it will bring benefits to everyone. As Lola Burgueño, professor at the Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications Department at the UOC and researcher at the IN3 Systems, Software and Models Research Lab (SOM Research Lab) group, explains, 5G enhances connectivity between users and smart devices. Thanks to this, we can transmit more data faster. 

“What we will notice is that the possibilities offered by our devices and the magnitude of the intelligent environments and the applications that will be available will be much greater “, she points out Burgueño.

An example is a connectivity in relatively small spaces where many people are connected at the same time. “If we go to the Madrid or Barça field and connect, with good 5G coverage we will enjoy a better service. In addition, it has less latency, which means that the time between seeing something live and the echo reaching us is less. 

This improves the experience, for example, in video games ”, indicates César Córcoles, professor at the UOC’s Computer, Multimedia and Telecommunications Studies and member of the Technology Enhanced Knowledge and Interaction Group (TEKING) research group.

But, in addition, the standards of the sixth generation of mobile connectivity, 6G, will begin to be defined. “It will be arriving and it will mean more improvements: more bandwidth, less latency, more connectivity.

IoT Development

Precisely the 5G network will allow us to continue advancing towards smarter buildings and cities, which would not have been possible with previous networks. 

“ There are more and more smart devices connected to the Internet, which form the so-called Internet of Things or IoT. Although sometimes we are not aware of or are unaware of the term, for a few years the developed world has moved in IoT environments. 

We just have to pay attention to the number of smart devices that surround us, such as our clock, the refrigerator, the washing machine, says Burgueño.

By having more connectivity, and by consuming less energy than connectivity, it is possible to connect more 5G radios, or via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, to more devices.

However, the urban environment is not the only potential beneficiary of IoT development. The connection can occur, in addition to objects, with people, processes, and other data.

 It could be the case of a person wearing a smartwatch that, based on the heart rate detected, is capable of making predictions, such as whether that person is going to have a heart attack or is prone to heart disease.

 “Basically, the watch, using sensors, collect data on the person’s pulse and, thanks to its internet connection, compare this data with the heart rate of thousands or millions of other users”, explains the UOC professor.

CPU improvements

CPU supply issues stemming from the pandemic have brought about innovations in processors. As Córcoles recalls, Apple has already made the leap, and the processors it sells in its laptops, and in some of the desktop computers, are now mobile processors “that have grown, have more power and, in fact, are more efficient than Windows laptop processors.

 Currently, manufacturers of equivalent chips in the Android world are also paving the way in this regard, and everything indicates that they will follow the same steps.

Folding screen phones, better photos and longer battery life

One of the high-end mobile trends that will be shown at MWC is folding screens. These are phones with twice the screen, which improves the experience of tasks such as viewing content, browsing the Internet, writing an email, or playing a video game. 

As Córcoles recalls, at the moment the folding mobile is a prototype of the mobile industry that still needs a few years to be viable and accessible to a large part of the population, but there have been improvements in recent times that suggest a change.

Technology in the fight for equality and against environmental devastation

The search for materials to manufacture mobile batteries that are less harmful to the environment and the recycling of used mobiles are another reality in which the telephone industry is working, and this will be discussed at the MWC. 

But, advances in the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and the 5G network, and especially the combination of these, can also help respect the environment in another way. 

“They allow the deployment of a network of devices connected to each other in factories and farms that collect data that is processed and analyzed, glimpsing inefficiencies in the systems and machines that can be corrected to optimize their production and reduce both waste and energy consumption. 

Fortunately, lately, there are many initiatives, both private and publicly funded, aimed at modernizing the industry towards sustainability.