MWC Shanghai returns after two-year Covid-19 hiatus

MWC Shanghai, Asia’s largest mobile industry exhibition, is back after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19. This year’s event takes place from June 28 to June 30 with the theme “Velocity”. According to the organizer – GSMA, 2023 marks the first decade of MWC Shanghai.

Visitors to MWC Shanghai 2023. (Photo: Weibo)

Ms. Sihan Bo Chen, Director of GSMA China, commented that the most important transition in the past 10 years is from 4G to 5G. She believes that 5G technology will be fully popular by 2030 in many countries.

Previously, GSMA successfully organized MWC Barcelona from February 27 to March 2.

This year's theme for MWC Shanghai highlights the importance of developing next-generation mobile networks in China, which has the world's largest 5G infrastructure and is also the world's largest smartphone market. By the end of 2022, more than 60% of global 5G connections were Chinese, despite the technology war with the US. Chinese 5G connections are expected to reach 1.6 billion by 2030, accounting for nearly a third of the world, according to a report by GSMA.

China began commercial deployment of 5G in June 2019. In March, the number of 5G base stations in the country exceeded 2.64 million, covering all districts. Shanghai aims to install 70,000 5G base stations by 2025, while striving to achieve fixed broadband speeds of 500 megabits per second.

Lenovo is the largest exhibitor at MWC Shanghai this year. In addition, there are hundreds of other exhibitors such as China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Qualcomm, Ericsson. More than 200 industry leaders and experts are expected to speak at MWC Shanghai, including Huawei Vice Chairwoman Meng Wanzhou.

A highlight of the event was the debut of the “Digital Shanghai Zone”, showcasing the city’s achievements in 5G-based digital infrastructure development, including AI, IoT, AR and virtual reality. These are applied in various fields, from healthcare to manufacturing, with the potential to make Shanghai a global 5G transformation benchmark.

(According to SCMP)