LAS VEGAS – A dramatic desert lightning storm was almost enough to spark what turned out to be a mixed MWC Las Vegas 2022 event. Though from a pure topic perspective, private 5G networks and open radio access network (RAN) news dominated the show.

The event itself got off to shocking start as an early morning thunderstorm passed through the Las Vegas valley just ahead of opening keynotes. However, once the fireworks and clouds lifted, what was left was the view of a surprisingly small keynote room.

Perhaps it was unwarranted expectations on my part, and I was indeed surprised by event organization GSMA stating they expected only up to 10,000 attendees would be on site, but I was still amazed by the small size of the keynote room.

[caption id="attachment_122319" align="alignnone" width="1620"] Keynote stage at MWC Las Vegas 2022. Source: SDxCentral[/caption]

Not that it’s a great indicator, but I have come to look at the size of a keynote stage and the size of that room as to the overall size and tangentially success of an event. I know it’s probably unfair to compare events pre- and post-COVID, but I have been to a handful of events this year that showed promising expectations.

MWC Las Vegas will not go down as one of those.

GSMA did do a good job of judging its participation expectation as there seemed to be just the right number of chairs to handle the crowd that did show up, which is better than having a larger venue that is half-empty. But that half-empty conundrum quickly appeared half-way through the opening keynote as most in the audience slowly began to trickle out.

On a more positive note, the event took great advantage of the relatively new Las Vegas Convention Center West Hall, which unlike the older part of the venue featured grand windows and tall ceilings that provided an airiness to the event.

And the show floor itself was surprisingly well stacked with booths that showed at least vendors wanted to be at the event even if show attendees were sparse. GSMA said it had more than 300 exhibitors on site, which seemed to pass the eye test.

Others I spoke with at the event also noted the lack of attendance, but there was common agreement on the quality of attendees. I will admit I had great meetings on site and was surprised by the high level of executive representation by some of the ecosystem’s larger players. This bodes well for continued industry support of the event.

Private 5G and the Spectrum Game

While event attendance itself appeared mixed, news was ample.

Nearly every discussion I had heading into the show and on site revolved around some form of private network or open RAN topic.

Vendors like Cisco, Dell, Federated Wireless, and NTT all unveiled some form of private network news or updates that revolved around using 5G technology to power private networks. Carriers got in on the push as well, with T-Mobile US building a managed service layer to ride on its already launched private 5G network plans.

One funny observation on this is the spectrum pecking order being drawn over the private 5G space.

The Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) advocates love to make off-handed comments about how useless fully unlicensed spectrum (WiFi) is in handling enterprise needs. But then the fully licensed folks take similar digs at CBRS. I know it all depends on specific use cases and such, but the spectrum nerd in me hopes these digs never stop.

The push behind this long-discussed private network business opportunity is not surprising as there appears to be a clear return on investment model tied to the lucrative enterprise market. But this glut of options flooding the market and broader macro-economic uncertainty could quickly wipe out fringe players.

MWC LV Opens Open RAN Reality

A similar mantra could be said for the open RAN space, which continues to slowly infiltrate the broader telecom landscape. Recent commercial announcements from carriers like Verizon provide solid evidence that market momentum continues, and government action in some countries should provide additional runway.

This week, market stalwarts like NEC, Fujitsu, Mavenir, and Rakuten all unveiled new products or partnerships further bolstering the space. And conversations at the MWC Las Vegas event all pointed toward continued interest in the continued maturity of the space.

However, concern continues over the final integration pieces needed for these open RAN components to power complicated and legacy heavy telecom networks, which seem to be just enough to keep platforms from flooding the market. Dish Network’s integration challenges highlighted the need for some common ground when it comes to broad deployments, but the market still appears to be in land-grab mode with those sorts of details being hacked together on the fly.

The open RAN ecosystem has a lot of potential to bring new innovation into the telecom space, but it needs to be a stable end-to-end project to reach that potential.

The MWC Barcelona event will be a bellwether for the future state of trade shows, private 5G networks, and open RAN, and hopefully we get strong answers on all three.

Catch up on all of our coverage from MWC Las Vegas here.