Getting Back to Normal (Sort of)

We were fortunate enough to attend the Mobile World Congress Los Angeles event this week on behalf of our Galtronics business. Having the chance to meet with customers, business partners, and fellow telecom people in person was terrific! As we are still dealing with the Pandemic, the size of the show and number of people attending was noticeably way down from prior years. Understandable for certain, but as they say, "you have to start somewhere."

To that end, I will say that the GSMA and CTIA, along with the Los Angeles Convention Center were very diligent about COVID requirements without making it feel like it was oppressive. Yes, we had to wear masks everywhere. Yes, everyone who attended had to show vaccination status. That said, the process of going in and out was not painful and well managed. I think we are all tired of the pandemic, but we all welcomed the opportunity to finally reconnect in person despite the restrictions.

On a more positive business note, one of the prevailing themes of the show was the resiliency of the wireless telecom industry. 5G adoption and our dependence on mobile broadband services has only grown during the pandemic. Moreover, all the major carriers are investing in their technologies - something that is good for the American people and good for the telecommunications industry in general.

Meredith Atwell Baker, President and CEO of the CTIA opened the show with a very positive keynote on the importance of what our industry does, and the pace at which we have continued to deliver during the pandemic. While most of us who live in telecom every day know this, we don't often take the time to celebrate how much our industry contributes.

There were also keynotes from AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Boingo, and IBM to name but a few. Much of the discussion was not just on accomplishment, but also on where our industry is going. David Christopher, AT&T's EVP for 5G Ecosystem and Partnerships, spoke not just about what 5G is, but also about the application and business ecosystem which 5G is enabling/will enable. In many respects this is why you now see companies like IBM, Red Hat, and Dell coming into the telecommunications world in very meaningful ways.

One of the highlights was IBM and Boston Dynamics presenting Spot, the Cloud AI 5G enabled robot. I love all things technology and it was clear I was not alone. When Spot came walking through the convention theater people were really enjoying seeing the technology application in action. What's even more interesting than the wow factor was all of the use cases discussed, particularly for industries where safety and/or hazard avoidance are critical. This is a pretty neat example of where 5G coupled with AI and Cloud technologies pays practical dividends in ways that would not have been imaginable a decade ago.

For those of you who we had an opportunity to meet with in Los Angeles, it was terrific reconnecting and being able to do business in person! . For those of you who missed the convention, we look forward to connecting again in person in the future. I am hopeful that with our continued scientific advancement we will be working to see a return to a somewhat normal, healthy world.