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2025 MWC Barcelona
A Collaboration of Converge! Network Digest and AvidThink
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Peter Vetter, President of Bell Labs Core Research at Nokia, showcases Bell Labs' century of achievements in modern technology, from transistors and cellular networks to Unix and neural networks. He outlines how Bell Labs maintains its innovative spirit through current work in AI, quantum technology, and space communication, including a lunar-orbiting network.
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Views expressed are those of the presenting individuals and companies and may not necessarily represent views of Converge! Network Digest or AvidThink.
Peter Arbitter, Chief Commercial Officer at Aduna, explains how telecom providers must develop additional revenue sources to maximize returns on their 5G network investments. He highlights that telcos can create new business opportunities by making their network data and APIs accessible to customers, rather than keeping this valuable information locked away.
Eddie Ramirez, VP of Marketing, Infrastructure Business at Arm, leads the AI RAN Alliance which has expanded to nearly 70 members across industry, academia, and telecom sectors since its MWC 2024 launch. The alliance prioritizes enhancing AI RAN efficiency, enabling AI-driven network configuration, and developing dual-purpose platforms, while showcasing Arm’s CPU and Neoverse capabilities for edge AI applications.
Shekar Ayyar, CEO of Arrcus, announced multiple strategic initiatives at MWC 2024, including the TGAX Telco-grade AI switch and partnerships with industry leaders like Broadcom, Liberty Global, and Fujitsu.
Roy Chua, Principal and Founder of AvidThink, observes AI as the central focus at MWC 2025, spanning network optimization, operations, and infrastructure development. AI’s impact on networking will be the focus for interviews and discussions at the show.
Gabriele Di Piazza, Vice President of Products, Alliances & Architectures at Blue Planet (a Ciena Company), discusses key Mobile World Congress trends including AI-driven infrastructure for network automation and digital twin technology for network simulation. He emphasizes how service providers are adopting data management layers while shifting toward cloud-native environments, highlighting the importance of building comprehensive ecosystems that unite network, OSS, and BSS players with developer communities.
Sandro Tavares, Director, Telecom Systems Marketing at Dell, discusses how service providers are adopting AI for customer care and network optimization while noting the need for infrastructure and operational changes. He outlines how telecom providers can become AI service providers given their data access advantages.
Laura Wilber, Senior Analyst, Technology & Industry at Enea, explains how AI has become essential for network security applications and encrypted traffic analysis. She highlights AI’s expanding role in protecting critical infrastructure networks and implementing advanced security measures like zero-trust architecture and intrusion detection systems.
Freddie Södergren, VP Head of Technology & Strategy for Business Area Networks at Ericsson, outlines the company’s vision for future networks that combine high performance with programmability to support emerging use cases and tailored connectivity. He emphasizes how AI enhances RAN performance and network automation while highlighting the need to build infrastructure that efficiently handles distributed AI workloads with optimal latency and throughput.
Henry Calvert, Head of Networks at GSMA, leads the Open Gateway initiative to advance network APIs across the telecommunications sector, with 106 signatories including 74 operator groups representing 284 networks. The initiative now covers nearly 80% of global mobile connections, focusing initially on anti-fraud and authentication while expanding into communications quality and connectivity insights for 2025.
Peter Jarich, Head of GSMA Intelligence at GSMA, discusses how operators have gained clarity on AI’s applications in their networks, especially with generative AI’s arrival.
Andrew Border, VP Product Management, Telco Solutions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise, showcases their private 5G solution that integrates AET’s software core and complements Wi-Fi in challenging environments like stadiums and hospitals. Through Aruba Central, the solution enables seamless management of both Wi-Fi and private 5G networks, making it easier for administrators to implement private 5G networking in North America.
Andrew Coward, GM, Software Networking at IBM, outlines three categories of AI offerings at Mobile World Congress: cloud providers with AI models, equipment vendors with integrated AI stacks, and end-to-end solution providers. IBM stands in the third category, focusing on solutions that leverage multiple AI models across vendor ecosystems while enabling specialized capabilities for specific tasks.
CEO Juho Sarvikas of Inseego announced their FX 5000 FWA product as the first to complete a data call using Qualcomm’s Dragonwing FWA Generation 4 platform. The company’s focus on enterprise FWA markets aligns with the enhanced capabilities of 5G Advanced technology, which offers improved uplink and downlink speeds for wireless broadband deployments.
Milind Kulkarni, VP of Engineering at InterDigital, shares a progress update on 6G research and development initiatives at MWC 2025, featuring demonstrations of integrated sensing, AI applications, and advanced video processing technologies. The presentations highlight InterDigital’s collaborative work with partners on key innovations including automated guided vehicles, predictive movement systems, all building toward the first 6G specification expected in 2029.
Alex Quach, VP and GM of the Wireline and Core Network Division at Intel, explains how telecom providers are upgrading networks with AI capabilities and enhanced power efficiency through the company’s Xeon processor families. The new processors deliver significant performance gains and power savings while supporting both networking and AI workloads, particularly at network edges and cell sites.
Julius Francis, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Juniper, outlines how AI is reshaping networking through infrastructure requirements for AI systems and AI-powered networking solutions. He showcases how Juniper’s Paragon portfolio uses AI capabilities to solve routing and WAN challenges.
Constantine Polychronopoulos, GVP of 5G and Telco Cloud at Juniper, discusses key Mobile World Congress trends including the Radio Intelligent Controller’s growing adoption and AI integration in radio access networks.
Yoshihisa Nakagawa, Department Manager at Kyocera, announces the formation of the O-RU Alliance, a seven-member partnership to help operators manage diverse spectrum requirements and radio unit characteristics across vendors. Drawing from their mobile handset and infrastructure expertise, Kyocera positions itself as a trusted operator partner while promoting “no borders and go bold” at MWC Barcelona.
Joel Brand, AVP of Product Marketing at Marvell, explains that AI in wireless networks is currently more hype than reality, despite its success in data centers. His insights highlight how Marvell’s AI-capable baseband devices allow customers to test algorithms in real networks.
Aji Ed, Head of Cloud RAN at Nokia, examines the growing intersection of AI and RAN technologies in telecommunications, emphasizing the expanding collaboration between tech sectors. As a founding member of the AI-RAN Alliance, Nokia has helped foster a community that has grown to 75 members, reflecting the mutual interest between telecom and AI industries.
Peter Vetter, President of Bell Labs Core Research at Nokia, showcases Bell Labs’ century of achievements in modern technology, from transistors and cellular networks to Unix and neural networks. He outlines how Bell Labs maintains its innovative spirit through current work in AI, quantum technology, and space communication, including a lunar-orbiting network.
At Mobile World Congress, Nokia’s SVP and Chief Marketing Officer Manish Gulyani discusses how AI is driving increased networking demands for cloud interconnection and shaping the company’s strategic direction. Through the acquisition of Infinera and partnerships with Lenovo and Kyndryl, Nokia is expanding its optical and data center networking capabilities.
Houman Modarres, Head of Enterprise Marketing at Nokia, discusses AI’s central role at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, focusing on how organizations are addressing infrastructure connectivity and network readiness for AI deployment.
Parm Sandhu, VP Enterprise 5G Products & Services at NTT Data, highlights the rapid expansion of AI adoption across cloud and edge environments over the past year, with cloud AI reaching widespread implementation while industrial AI continues to develop.
Chris Penrose, Global Head Business Development – Telco at NVIDIA, discusses key findings from their AI Trends and Telecom report, which shows telcos achieving positive ROI with AI implementations – 77% reporting cost savings and 84% seeing revenue benefits. The report indicates growing adoption of open-source models and generative AI in production environments, with 84% of telcos planning to offer generative AI services to their customers.
Phil Kippen, Global Head of Industry – Telecommunications at Snowflake, explains how 2024 will be defined by agentive AI and autonomous networks in telecommunications. He highlights the importance of legacy system integration, ecosystem development, and the progressive benefits of network automation as operators advance toward autonomous operations.
Michael Clegg, VP & GM 5G/Edge at Supermicro, outlines the company’s expansion from Open RAN to AI in telecommunications, highlighting their involvement in the growing ORAN Alliance and their platforms running on Nvidia HGX Grace Hopper technology.
Ofir Zemer, Vice President, Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., showcases the company’s RAN Automation Suite, which features AI-driven capabilities and a Service Management Orchestration foundation. The system’s agnostic layer enables carriers to express business objectives in natural language while leveraging predictive KPIs, RF analysis, and integration with various RAN vendor applications.
Kishan Ramaswamy, Director, Product Management at VeloCloud by Broadcom, and Roy Chua, Principal and Founder at AvidThink, examine how VeloCloud’s VeloSky platform enables CSPs to maximize their 5G investments through enhanced user experience and network capabilities.
SailGP is turning heads with its cutting-edge F50 foiling catamarans. It’s a data intensive sport requiring the best in network connectivity. Warren Jones, CTO at SailGP, and Jonathan Fischer, Global VP of OEM and Embedded Technologies at Ericsson discuss how Private 5G is making it happen.