20 years of iconic thought leadership

On stage in 2006, Ballmer announced the Microsoft® Office Communicator Mobile, which provided workers with the advantages of enterprise-grade, real-time collaboration capabilities for their mobile solutions. He called smartphones a new “growth engine for the wireless industry.”

He also showed off a live TV service introduced by Virgin Mobile and BT Movio powered by Microsoft for Windows Mobile®-based smartphones. Joining him on stage via a video message, Sir Richard Branson announced that Virgin Mobile would be the first mobile operator to sign up for the TV service, making Virgin Mobile customers the first in Europe to have live digital TV on their mobile phones.

Branson was correct when he predicted, “...being able to watch your favourite programmes on your mobile while on the go will soon be as natural as watching TV in your living room today.” 

Politics and business merged on stage when Viviane Reding, railing against the costs of mobile data and text messaging abroad, warned she would slash EU roaming SMS prices if operators failed to act.

"Sending a text message or downloading data in another country should not be substantially more expensive than it is at home," she said.  

The GSMA’s DG took to the stage in 2012 to encourage MNOs to use Rich Communications: “There is clear consumer demand for enriched messaging and voice services, and Rich Communications provides mobile network operators with solutions to address these consumer needs, as well as paving the way for future, innovative IP-based voice and messaging services.”

The GSMA also launched a consumer-facing brand – joyn - available for operators to use and give one global ‘face’ to RCS services.

“joyn will act as a mark of assurance to customers that they will have simple and direct access to enriched voice and messaging services wherever they are and whatever network they are using,” continued Bouverot. “Our key message is, it’s just there, it just works.” 

John Chambers was inspiring operators to monetise sensor data long before IoT was mainstream. In his keynote he touted the Internet of Everything as “10 times bigger than the internet itself.” 

Back in 2016 Zuckerberg made a surprise appearance on stage with Samsung, focusing on Facebook's vision for the future of social interaction, particularly highlighting virtual reality and its potential to transform communication and social experiences.

“VR is the next platform where anyone can experience anything they want," he said. "It's going to change the way we live and work and communicate.” 

Talking about the spirit behind the new VIVE technology, Cher Wang explained the idea of “merging technology with humanity to unleash imagination”, before unveiling HTC’s Vive Reality vision and demonstrating VIVE Pro live. 

The Microsoft CEO revealed the HoloLens 2 and the company’s ‘intelligent cloud and intelligent edge’ roadmap.  

In the Networks for Change keynote, Accenture’s Julie Sweet urged telcos to make connectivity the backbone of sustainable growth, placing ESG and digital inclusion firmly in the telco C-suite.

Neatly fusing sustainability with the topic of commercial 5G strategy, the CEO introduced the ‘New Tech Order’ – tech humanised for climate-positive impact.

“Humanising technology into everyday life will open new avenues for industries and consumers to embrace change. A new future is on the horizon – one that’s different from what the world expected but led by technology.”

In her keynote, the CEO of Telstra discussed the changing role of the operator from network owner to “ecosystem builder” that brings together technologies such as 5G, AI, automation, edge computing and “an explosion of applications”. She also warned that if operators don’t change, they run the risk that the “value created over our networks gets captured by others.” 

In a keynote entitled Driving Europe’s Digital Future, Christel Heydemann championed operator collaboration on GSMA Open Gateway and spoke to the need for more investment.

“More investment creates capacity, scale, innovation, and cheaper prices. This creates a virtuous circle. We need to change the market structure where more investment is seen as bad. We help the ecosystem by working with small companies, startups, European companies, and tech giants. We don't want to build borders around Europe, but we need a European ecosystem that benefits from more investment.” 

In a panel conversation about the shifting sands of media, Jessica Sibley explored the challenges and advantages of integrating AI into newsrooms.

“We had three options with AI: litigate, negotiate, or do nothing. We weren't going to do nothing. We didn't want to litigate, so we've negotiated. What does that mean? We have lots of partnerships with many different AI companies for monetisation purposes. We're using all the tools and technologies to be more efficient and to compete on a global basis.” 

CEO of Mistral AI, Arthur Mensch, took to the stage to discuss his company’s remarkable rise to global prominence and the next chapter in its roadmap.

Covering geopolitics, AI personalisation for networks and as-yet-untapped opportunities, he went on to say, “Telcos have an opportunity to invest in data centres and become hyperscalers. We've seen this model work in different parts of the world. Setting up a data centre is not that different from setting up fibre to the home. We would welcome more efforts, more domestic efforts, in making data centres.”