Celebrating 25 years @ MWC (1999-2024)
As I came back this week-end from the frenzy of Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, I have started to reflect on what has been an amazing journey attending for 25 years now the world's largest exhibition for the communication industry (yeap, I am that old!)
I can only be thankful for having joined this industry more than two decades ago as a recent graduate, and marvel with hindsight of the tremendous impact communication technologies have had on all our lives and how profoundly transformative their influences have been across all industries, as demonstrated again this year at the event.
Clearly, the differences between 1999 and 2024 are mind-boggling (read below) but the hype of hyperbolic revolution promised each year by the latest technologies on display seems unsurprisingly (and eerily) very similar!
View from 1999: The promise of 2.5G and the Mobile Internet
At the time, the event was known as 3GSM World (rebranded since as MWC) and took place in Cannes, the beautiful beach town in the French Riviera, known for its glamorous Film Festival and coincidentally close to my home, which was probably one of the key reasons I was asked to attend as a recent consultant from Accenture.
In 1999, it was a rather cozy industry event with a couple of thousands of attendees, a far cry from today’s mega-show with 100,000+ registered visitors from more than 200 countries and 2500+ companies participating.
GSM (Global System for Mobile) was the most popular cell phone standard, with Global GSM connections just surpassing 100 million mobile subscriptions (≈9 billion now in 2024).
The first contracts were placed for GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), also known as '2.5G' technology, which was the first popular data standard for mobile phones, offering a snail-biting speed of 30-40 Kbit/s (and a theoretical maximum of 115 Kbit/s). GPRS was going to be used for WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service). SMS was the real ‘killer application” while WAP trials were beginning in France and Italy.
The hype of the industry was the promise to bring internet onto mobile and Nokia 7110 was launched with grand fanfare as the world’s first mobile phone with a WAP Browser. Nokia's iconic ring-tone was the coolest thing in the industry and its market capitalization was matching with an equally cool ≈$200 billion (≈$20b market cap in 2024 mainly related to networks as Nokia handsets division was sold to Microsoft in 2014 for ≈$7b).
In 1999, Vodafone was the darling of mobile operators with a whopping ≈$300 billion market cap (≈$20b in 2024), American Online (AOL) the largest Internet Service Provider (ISP) with ≈$200 billion market cap (subsequently sold for ≈$5b to Verizon in 2015) and Yahoo! the most popular web browser with a ≈$100 billion market cap (subsequently sold for ≈$4b to Verizon in 2017).
On the horizon, the industry was preparing to spend billions on 3G spectrum auctions with the promise of sharp internet mobile growth curve adoption and projection of a future without limit.
As it turned out, consumers found out later the disappointing limits of early mobile internet and the market ‘irrational exuberance’ fueled by internet hyperbolic future valuation came to a hard-landing during the dot-com crash in early 2001. This started a period of value destruction and corresponding hangover which still reverberates to this day. (note: watch-out for 5G & FTTP potential investment hangover in the future).
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Fast-Forward in 2024: ‘Future First’ and the promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In 2024, under the overall GSMA’s banner of “Future First”, the star of MWC24 edition was the promise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the vision of a world connecting people and objects, working together towards solving challenges of today and tomorrow. MWC 2024 event themes included:
So, What's Next?
So, will all those trends deliver on their promises to create new opportunities across industries? If the last two decades are of any indications, it will be more a question of “when” (speed of adoption) rather than “what” (technologies) and most importantly “where” in the value chain will those benefits migrate to i.e. “who” will be the winners to capture the full business potential enabled from those new technologies.
In the last two decades, we witnessed a period of unprecedented changes in the Communication, Media & Technology (CMT) industries with positive repercussions across the world, resulting in wide-ranging benefits for billions of people (e.g. in education, financial services, global trade, employment, culture, etc.).
And, as of 2024, six out of the top 10 companies in the world by market capitalization are from the CMT industries [i.e.. Microsoft, Apple, Nvidia, Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Meta (Facebook)], so it seems there’s never been a better time to join in on this ‘epic disruption’ and continue this amazing journey for the next decade!
PS: This post is personal, not company opinion.
PS: I am sure many of you have also witnessed this amazing journey, so please feel free to join in and comment below with your own highlights/anecdotes from these past decades!
Marketing & Sales | Operations | Digital Transformation & Innovation | Franchising & Network Development | Customer Care & Experience | Training & Competence Development | Start-up & Scale-up
8 个月What a fascinating step back into great memories Frederic Astier, Thanks! I clearly remember a young version of myself, back on July 1998, learning GSM principles (originally Groupe Spécial Mobile), equipped with my first ever mobile phone (a Nokia 2110 with x-Mas cover….yes, in the middle of the summer). Few years later, I had the opportunity to excitedly present some “innovative stuff” @MWCs: the most genuine ambition for us as marketers. I’m happy to see how the technological progresses made over the last two decades, are now applying to several industries, like the keyless technology enabling flexible vehicle’s sharing experience, rather than leveraging on generative AI and XR to provide a best in class customer services. Today -like 26 years ago- I still have the impression that…it is just the beginning ??
CVP, Microsoft Customer Experience [X-Google (Applied AI) | X-Dell (VP) | X-Brocade (CTO) | X-Cisco (Distinguished)]
8 个月I miss the days of yacht meetings and being able to navigate the entire show floor in less than 1 hour. Ahh, the days of Cannes. You have one-upped me. This was 24 for me. In 2025, I will shamelessly steal your idea and write my own reflections, I am lucky to have the “25 in ‘25” tagline, though. Thanks for sharing!
You made me remember the nice & elegant 3GSM in Nice :) What amazes me with MWC is how it evolves together with the CMT industries. Today it is a big Tech event with all stakeholders of it. Some people still see it as a "Telco" or "Mobile only" event which makes me to smile :)
Executive for Financial Services - Banking | Management Consulting - Managing Director | Director | Partner | CIO | Board Member
8 个月Absolutely amazing! Hope you have had great time growing in knowledge and maybe having made new meaningful connections and even friends for life along all those years! After 25 years, so many scenarios have unfolded and it seems we are always on the verge on the next real thing. For some reason, it does seem we are with the AI agenda and all the ethical discussion and possibilities it may come in comminication, interaction, content creation. Looking forward to your comments in the 2025 edition! Thank you for putting all that nice info together.
Sr. Director of Marketing | Marketer, Builder, Innovator | AI Trailblazer, Kubernetes Enthusiast | Help Tech Companies Articulate Product Value and Differentiate it in the Market
8 个月Great post! I didn't know that WAP trials started in France and Italy. I'm also that old; back then, I was in my last year of university in Italy, developing one of the first WAP applications as part of one of my projects. It was indeed super exciting to be able to bring the internet to mobile devices.