Like many of you I'm packing my bags in preparation for my annual trip to Barcelona, Spain, for the 2014 Mobile World Congress, Feb. 24-27.
From the many emails and phone calls I received from companies wanting to meet with me to talk about their products and news announcements, I can confidently say that I believe the Internet of Things will be a hot topic at the show. The GSMA is once again teaming with partners like AT&T, Vodafone, KT and T-Mobile to create the "Connected City," a dedicated area of the show floor featuring interactive displays that showcase how wireless can help with transportation, retail, education, smart cities and more.
But beyond the hype of IoT, I expect the wireless network to continue to be a focus at this annual convention, which typically draws more than 70,000 attendees to Barcelona every year. Small cells, HetNets, and of course the promise of LTE Advanced will be prominent in every discussion.
The FierceWireless team will be exploring both LTE Advanced and Internet of Things in depth during our luncheon panel sessions that will be held directly across the street from the Fira Gran Via at the Fira Congress Hotel.
My colleague, Mike Dano, executive editor of FierceWireless, will host the IoT discussion Tuesday, Feb. 25. He will be joined by Glenn Lurie, president, emerging enterprises and partnerships at AT&T; Rob Chandhok, president of Qualcomm Interactive Platforms and senior vice president of Qualcomm Technologies; Matt Thompson, general manager, developer evangelism at Microsoft; and John Horn, president of Raco Wireless. They will discuss how technologies such as RFID, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, ZigBee and NFC will work with cellular and wireline networks; the framework needed to support IoT; and more.
On Wednesday, Feb. 26, I will host the LTE Advanced panel. Joining me will be Kris Rinne, SVP of network architecture and planning at AT&T; Jinsung Choi, executive vice president and head of ICT R&D Division at SK Telecom; Aicha Evans, VP, Platform Engineering Group at Intel; Chris Pearson, president of 4G Americas; and Rasmus Hellberg, senior director, technical marketing at Qualcomm. We will discuss the current status of LTE Advanced globally and look at the pros and cons of deploying the technology.
Register here to attend either one or both of these luncheon panels at Mobile World Congress. I'm looking forward to a frank discussion on LTE Advanced and IoT with some of the industry's most respected experts. I hope you can join us. --Sue
P.S. As a reminder, FierceWireless:Europe/TelecomsEMEA will be publishing daily during Mobile World Congress, so stay tuned for lots of news next week!