BARCELONA -- Mobile World Congress -- Having done the rounds at its major wireless infrastructure rivals, it was time to take a 20-minute tour of the Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. stand and hear about its latest developments. (See MWC 2009 Booth Tours.)

Was this a case of saving the best until last?

No. It wasn't. Have a look:



Of the five companies we visited, each of which had the same amount of time to prepare and the same warning of what we were intending to do -- take a tour of the booth with a photographer and let the vendor decide on how to organize the 20 minutes and prioritize the limited time -- Huawei seemed the least prepared.

I was met by my two guides, Ross Gan and Fabian Gradolph, who escorted me around the stand, handing me off to the specialist presenters -- the same (and sensible) tactic used by some of the other vendors.

But as you'll read, Huawei didn't seem to make best use of the time available, and at one point I stood for two minutes -- that's 10 percent of the available time -- with no one showing or telling me anything. My guides were within distance, but were distracted, which gave me a chance to ponder, something I hadn't had on my other tours.

All photos by Siqui Sánchez: All captions by Ray Le Maistre.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading