This year I’ll opt to write a few quick thoughts on the state of the telco industry instead of the annual report that follows MWC. Time is tight, so let’s get straight to the main points.
Foldable Phones
Foldable phones were the main highlight of MWC2019. Both Samsung and Huawei launched models featuring foldable screens. At prices in the range of €2,300, these phones will be the ultimate status symbols. You can’t expect high volumes with this kind of pricing. If the industry is looking for a device that will make the business case for 5G, I don’t think it will be these phones.
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The benefits of edge computing, low latency and backhaul efficiency are well understood. However, there is a cost to realize these benefits through small data centers. Hyperscale data centers are the backbone of the cloud. The cost structure and operation of these data centers is well understood. On the other hand, different requirements govern the edge cloud leading to different economics. Understanding these economics and monetization potential is fundamental to evaluating the business case for edge computing. The question becomes: is latency worth the cost of edge computing? 
Two paths to 5G deployments are emerging: consumer and enterprise deployments. The former is how operators make the vast majority of their revenue. The latter is receiving much interest as it promises a new bump in revenue. Enterprise private networks is not a new idea: it has been slow to realize it because of economics among other factors. New technologies promise to reduce the cost structure. Some equipment vendors, like 
Edge computing presents a new opportunity for 
It is fashionable to talk about the race to 5G. This theme started last year, and has picked up this year with many opinion articles published on the topic. Perhaps the one that got most attention is the 
Anyone knows what generation processor running in their laptop? How about which DSL or cable modem technology is serving their house? With 802.11ax starting to come to market, I don’t see anyone rushing to upgrade their access node. When no one is keeping track of ‘generations’ in these technologies, why is it that in mobile it’s all about the “G”? How did this come about and why? And, will it keep being this way? Or will 5G be the last “G”?
The Algiers Smart City Project is more than just another smart city project: It is a platform for talent mobilization. Over the past week, I had the pleasure to participate in the Smart Cities Summit in Algiers and as mentor and judge in the Leapfrog Hackathon and Startup Challenge. These events were designed to focus attention on Algiers burgeoning startup scene and enhance interaction with global actors to address the IDC syndrome. 
Interest in the 3.5 GHz band is increasing as its set to become the global 5G spectrum band. We recently undertook a study for a new research report* of global 3.5 GHz band to uncover the impact on the 5G deployment timelines and ecosystem. One of the fundamental questions is putting figures on the value of the 3.5 GHz band. Our analysis shows that on average 3.5 GHz spectrum is 36% that of 2.6 GHz spectrum. In the meantime, we estimate that a 3.5 GHz network will require 15% more cell sites than a 2.6 GHz network. This leads us to conclude that prices for 3.5 GHz spectrum will rise. We also identified a number of issues that regulators will have to address to improve the value and utilization of this band.
It’s official! Telecom is a utility! The admission comes from service providers themselves. Service providers struggled to monetize value added services to keep from being dumb pipes. Now, it seems that they have resigned themselves to being a utility and are happy to be the pipe. This admission came at the 
It is common to pin the 5G value proposition on its performance, mainly capacity* and latency. These features will enable applications that operators can monetize. However, I will argue here that capacity and latency are secondary to realizing the full 5G value proposition. Capacity and latency make for big headlines and are easy to grasp by the common subscriber. But the true value of 5G resides elsewhere: it lies in the network architecture of 5G. It is not that capacity and latency are not important. However, if we think of 5G purely from capacity and latency perspective, we could misread how the market could evolve. 
In my earlier post, I outlined a 
There are a few myth about 5G that I came about in discussions with executives, investors, smart city officials and other parties active in technology development and planning for new services. Two examples: