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 Rami Reshef, CEO of GenCell 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?
Rami: We are incredibly excited for MWC this year. It is set to be the largest convention of the global telecom industry since the start of the pandemic and we are keen to see it return in earnest!
It has been made abundantly clear that continuous digital connectivity is the backbone for our society, businesses and all aspects of human interaction, and it is to the credit of the whole industry that it has been able to support the drastic digitalisation that has enabled us to continue to participate – albeit virtually - in social, civil and commercial life. The expansion of 5G and IoT services now present an even richer future and we are looking forward to learning in more detail about the use-cases these are already enabling. For GenCell, the importance of digitalization is amplified by the fact that it has an enabling effect to significantly reduce fossil fuel consumption by consolidating and replacing many physical and logistical operations with digital ones across all sectors, from web conferencing to e-commerce to smart farming to industrial IoT to telemedicine and many, many more. The telecom industry has shown enormous dedication and commitment to climate action and to the transition to renewable energy and we are looking forward to leveraging #MWC22 to discuss how GenCell can contribute to accelerating operator-specific and cross-industry initiatives in this domain. At MWC, GenCell will be showcasing our backup power solution designed for telecom the GenCell BOX™ in the Deutsche Telekom booth. In parallel, we will be meeting with off-grid and poor grid telecom operators and tower managers to promote the recent launch of our revolutionary hydrogen-on-demand off-grid power solution the GenCell FOX™.Beyond this, MWC offers a great chance to make new connections and meet fascinating people in the industry (many of whom we have not seen except via Zoom in quite some time)! We are extremely grateful for the chance to be enjoying MWC in person this year in Barcelona and hope that it will be a productive and valuable experience for our team and for all the other participants working to expand collaboration across the industry, especially to make collective efforts to meet sustainability objectives.
Tara: How has the pandemic impacted the operational and business landscape of the tech segment you are operating in?
Rami: Of course, the pandemic has made us depend heavily on telecommunications networks to carry out the crucial services and business operations on which we have gotten used to having available networks and online applications readily accessible to carry out our daily activities. We expect MWC to showcase many new additional technologies that are expanding these functionalities to further enhance our digital business experience.
That said, these developments also bring forth opportunities and challenges for the underlying infrastructure needed to keep our connected world running smoothly. The vast amount of data processed in the world’s data centres leads to a truly staggering amount of energy consumption. In 2016, global data centres consumed more electricity than the total energy demand for the United Kingdom. Experts warned then that consumption could triple by 2026. If the industry would continue to rely on fossil fuels to supply its power, this would negatively impact the world’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality and eliminate global warming.
Since the pandemic, GenCell has reinforced the pace and depth of our development activities to share our resilient zero-emission solutions as quickly and broadly as possible. To this end, GenCell is working closely with telecom and tower providers worldwide to incorporate our green energy solutions into their networks and operations.
We trust that MWC will be a great opportunity for us to show that the expansion of the telecommunications industry does not have to come at the expense of the environment. With smart thinking combined with developing tech, we are confident that we can expand #GreenPower4Towers, #SayNoToDiesel and eliminate the carbon emissions that the world’s off-grid and poor grid towers release into the atmosphere every year.
Tara: What emerging trends/technologies have you observed in your tech segment in recent months?
Rami: We see a growing trend among telecom providers to focus on the impact of digitalization to advance decarbonization. In layman’s terms, the industry is recognising that doing more online as a society can dramatically reduce carbon emissions and improve accessibility. As the trend to work from home seems not to subside, emissions from commuter transport are diminishing. It is now possible to imagine a world where through constant high-speed connectivity, people from across the world can learn from each other, connect and do business with each other instantly while avoiding any combustion engine activity to bring them together. We no longer need to rely on emissions-heavy activities like air travel to have digital social interactions that previous generations could not even have imagined.
The fact is - the telecommunications industry provides the essential infrastructure for our connected lives, but that infrastructure depends on uninterrupted, zero-emission power. We look forward to discussing new and diversified strategies as to how best to deliver sufficient green power to maintain the continuous connectivity needed to enable the digitization that is driving decarbonization. GenCell is proud to offer resilient and reliable power technologies that can support telecom networks not only as complements to hybrid distributed renewable energy resources but also to enable emergency services during climate-related disasters. The telecom industry is working towards a clean green future and GenCell is dedicated to making this vision a reality – we see #MWC22 as a great vehicle to help move us along this path - see you there!
