Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 promises to be a landmark event, marking a dramatic shift in focus from communications to computing. In the midst of this transformation, ABI Research anticipates that the tech show will shine a spotlight on the growing rift between China and the West, with a special focus on how telcos are embracing platforms that can power next-gen applications, especially in the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Technological advancements in cellular standards have been the hallmark of MWC for 2 decades, dating back to the 2G and 3G eras. This year, that will change for many reasons:
Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 is fast approaching, and ABI Research will be there once again to witness the latest innovations shaping the future of mobile technology. Based on numerous pre-briefings ahead of Barcelona, our analysts are calling the most dramatic shift in MWC's history: watch the telecoms industry finally shed its old skin. Computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are not just joining the party, they are taking over the entire show.
The Delaware jury's decision in favor of Qualcomm marks a pivotal moment in semiconductor industry licensing practices. Several key elements drove this outcome. Technical testimony proved crucial, particularly Dr. Annavaram's clear distinction between architecture licensing and implementation, showing only 1% commonality between Arm RTL and actual implementations. This technical clarity helped separate Arm's legitimate Intellectual Property (IP) rights from overreach in claiming ownership of independently developed innovations. The evidence of Qualcomm's substantial investment—US$1.4 billion for the NUVIA acquisition and maintaining a 300-strong engineering team—demonstrated genuine independent development, rather than mere IP exploitation.
Connectivity is becoming central to almost every aspect of our lives. It has radically changed our lifestyle, enhanced our productivity, transformed the way we work and do business, and reduced the digital divide between developed and developing countries. As a result, demand for telecommunication technologies has exploded, touching almost every node of the infrastructure from the long haul to access networks, such as fixed broadband.
Sidelink is a Device-to-Device (D2D) communication technology that broadens Long Term Evolution (LTE)/5G network coverage. This technology has been around since The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Release 12 when it was used to enable basic vehicular communication (Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X)) on LTE networks. Over the years, there have been incremental upgrades, such as Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) sidelink support in 3GPP Release 14 and 5G support in Release 15, among others. Then, 3GPP Release 16 introduced 5G New Radio (NR) support, which is highly beneficial for 5G users looking for deployment flexibility on-premises. Now we arrive at 3GPP Release 17 and Release 18 (5G Advanced), both of which are bound to challenge the way you think of sidelink.