According to Light Reading's poll of 900 readers, NFV and SDN, followed by 5G and the IoT, will dominate headlines at this year's mobile extravaganza in Barcelona.

Sarah Thomas, Director, Women in Comms

March 1, 2015

3 Min Read
Poll: NFV/SDN, 5G & IoT to Dominate MWC

BARCELONA -- Mobile World Congress -- SDN and NFV, followed closely by the Internet of Things and 5G, are slated to be the biggest topics of discussion when the doors to the Fira officially open tomorrow for Mobile World Congress (although seasoned veterans know the show actually starts today, Sunday).

Nine hundred of you voted in our poll, asking, "What will be the hottest topic at Mobile World Congress 2015?" which is just 1% of the number of people who attend MWC, but is still a good sample size to get a feel for the show's biggest trends. SDN and NFV were the top choice, garnering 19% of the vote, followed by 5G at 16% and the IoT at 15%. (See MWC: Let the Madness Begin.)

Although not capturing as much buzz, VoLTE (9%), LTE-Unlicensed (8%), small cells (8%), network security (7%), analytics (5%) and C-RAN (3%) all got some votes as well. And, as is true with any trade show, some people are just in it for the food. Nearly 10% of respondents selected tapas as the hottest topic at the show, or maybe just in the city. (See Hola, MWC#15.)

Figure 1:

For all the coverage from MWC, visit our dedicated show site here on Light Reading.

Light Reading's team of ace reporters will find out if our readers' predictions come true this week and will report back on the progress made around SDN and NFV, if IoT demos trump those of the Consumer Electronics show, if any consensus is reached amongst the hype around 5G (expect some 4.5G and pre-5G in there too) and more. (See Is DT About to Blow Our SDN Socks Off?, CES Pics: Get Another Bite of the Gadget Cherry!, Huawei Promises 4.5G & LTE-M in 2016 and ZTE's Pre5G Offers a Path Across FDD Divide.)

In the meantime, feel free to spend the next few hours reading up on a few of the stories that have already come out of MWC in the week leading up to it, and be sure to check back here for the news, sites, sounds and smells from the show floor.

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— Sarah Thomas, Circle me on Google+ Follow me on TwitterVisit my LinkedIn profile, Editorial Operations Director, Light Reading

About the Author(s)

Sarah Thomas

Director, Women in Comms

Sarah Thomas's love affair with communications began in 2003 when she bought her first cellphone, a pink RAZR, which she duly "bedazzled" with the help of superglue and her dad.

She joined the editorial staff at Light Reading in 2010 and has been covering mobile technologies ever since. Sarah got her start covering telecom in 2007 at Telephony, later Connected Planet, may it rest in peace. Her non-telecom work experience includes a brief foray into public relations at Fleishman-Hillard (her cussin' upset the clients) and a hodge-podge of internships, including spells at Ingram's (Kansas City's business magazine), American Spa magazine (where she was Chief Hot-Tub Correspondent), and the tweens' quiz bible, QuizFest, in NYC.

As Editorial Operations Director, a role she took on in January 2015, Sarah is responsible for the day-to-day management of the non-news content elements on Light Reading.

Sarah received her Bachelor's in Journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia. She lives in Chicago with her 3DTV, her iPad and a drawer full of smartphone cords.

Away from the world of telecom journalism, Sarah likes to dabble in monster truck racing, becoming part of Team Bigfoot in 2009.

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