Mobile World Congress 2009 – LTE the buzz of the show

When we hear the words “Mobile World Congress” we immediately think of a huge trade show focused entirely on the latest and greatest smartphone technology. Over the past few years smarthphones have certainly generated a lot of attention.  This year was no exception.  Pre-event buzz was all about Google’s Android open source platform. Oddly, only a few announcements have been made, Huawei’s entry into the smartphone market with their Android-based prototype and the new HTC phone, Magic.

But Mobile World is about so much more. Long before smartphones entered the scene, Mobile World Congress (3GSM) had a huge focus on next generation network technologies. I'm happy to report the real buzz going on at this year's show was not on the end user device but on the next generation infrastructure, Long Term Evolution (LTE).

Over in Hall 8, where all the big Tier 1 equipment manufacturers exhibit, LTE was the buzz in the air and on display at many demo stations. In the aisles, Service Providers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon were making news about their LTE investments, vendor selections, trials, and deployments. All major Equipment Providers were actively showcasing their LTE-based network elements. >Nokia-Siemens even took the opportunity to launch their new LTE Flexi Base Stations and Gateways.

Thanks to all those bandwidth hungry smartphones, LTE looks to be on the fast path to deployment in 2011.

What else was cool at Mobile World Congress 2009? Did anyone visit the Femtocell Pavillion?.  What was the best story to come out of this year’s event?  Did you check out the Wind River solutions for Networking and Mobile?