With MWC Shanghai 2023 having successfully taken place last week at the Shanghai New International Expo Centre, Ariana Lynn, Senior Analyst at The Fast Mode spoke to Ivan Wang, the VP of NXCLOUD, a global cloud communications solution provider that attended and exhibited at the event. Ivan discusses his predictions for the telecoms industry in 2023, including potential challenges and emerging technologies.
Ariana: What topics dominated this year’s MWC Shanghai?
Ivan: The hottest topic might have been AIGC; while 5.5G, smart healthcare, smart cities, the Internet of Everything and the metaverse were some other fascinating topics.
Ariana: What are some of the new challenges expected to impact the telecoms industry in 2023?
Ivan: The telecoms industry will face significant problems as a result of the global economic slump. The telecoms business still has problems to solve regarding network costs, product value, and ongoing digital transformation. As investment in 5G increases around the world, competition will become more intense, while customer needs change and regulations in various countries become stricter, so the telecoms industry will need to continuously adjust its business and business models, even divesting some non-core businesses and tightening its business focus, to reduce the impact of changes in the overall environment.
Ariana: What emerging trends and technologies do you expect to unfold in the region’s telco space?
Ivan: It is inevitable that China Mobile's introduction of the "Yang Jie" chairman digital human picture at MWC Barcelona will reignite interest in the "metaverse" idea. I believe 2023 will be a crucial year for the industrial layout of metaverse. With the end of the epidemic and the opening of doors in various countries, technical exchanges and cooperation in this area will be strengthened, thus leading to the rapid development of the entire ecological chain, and perhaps soon, "metaverse" will really enter millions of households.
The further advancement of global operators' digital industry transformation would undoubtedly result in new company growth opportunities for each of them. The layout of the digital economy is already being started or expanded by many operators, who are profiting from the quick development of edge computing, computing networks, and other emerging businesses. The subsequent digital business will undoubtedly become the focus of each operator's continued efforts.
Despite the fact that 5G has been available in many countries for some time, the majority of users are still C-side consumers, and the true potential of applications at the industry level has not yet been realized and needs more research. As 5G matures, I believe it will deepen and accelerate the integration of 5G and diverse industries, as well as introduce more industry-oriented enterprise-class solutions, benefiting enterprise B-side customers more.
