In conjunction with MWC Barcelona 2022 which will be taking place from the 28th of February to the 3rd of March, Tara Neal, Executive Editor of The Fast Mode spoke to Luis Jorge Romero, Director General at ETSI on the company's plans and showcases for this year's event.
Tara: What do you think MWC 2022 will be all about? And what are your MWC 2022 plans?
Luis: MWC 2022 is all about connectivity. For ETSI it’s all about reconnecting with members and partners we haven’t seen face to face for 2 years and catching up with what is new.
Tara: How has the pandemic impacted the operational and business landscape of the tech segment you are operating in?
Luis: It has been challenging for us as a standardization body. Although we already held some meetings virtually, we had to move completely online. This came with challenges. One of them was to find meeting times which suited our global membership footprint. We also had to turn large meetings into smaller more focused ones to be able to involve everybody in the most efficient way. The other challenge was to overcome the lack of informal in-person meetings that our members are used to and which very often enable them to discuss and solve issues quickly. Overall we coped very well and managed to keep working, with the support both or our staff and members.
Tara: What emerging trends/technologies have you observed in your tech segment in recent months?
Luis: We have noticed that 5G has been picked up round the world quicker than expected, which is good news! At the same time big operators and vendors have started talking about 6G and issuing White Papers about it, outlining what telcos might look like in 5-10 years-time. This shows that industry is moving fast and keeps innovating. As for ETSI and 3GPP, we don’t want to accelerate 5G but we keep a close eye and are already thinking of the next generation, starting to work on the next trends.
Luis Jorge Romero, Director General of ETSI, has 30 years’ experience in the telecommunications sector. At ETSI he has initiated a global standardization partnership for Machine to Machine communications, oneM2M. He has overseen the rapid development of ETSI’s Industry Specification Groups accelerating market penetration of new technologies and has enabled the first Open Source group in ETSI.
