Mobile World Congress (MWC), the largest global trade show for the mobile industry, brought together the world’s largest telecommunications companies and mobility solutions suppliers for four days. Considering the global importance of this event, which presented the latest trends in IoT, Blockchain and 5G technologies, there was no way Brazil wasn’t participating. With a delegation of 17 companies promoted by Apex-Brasil and Softex, Brazil stood out among the international media. Keep reading for the highlights of the green and yellow contributions to #MWC2018.
Of the dozens of meetings held both inside the Brazilian booth and elsewhere, most noteworthy were the ones with French telecommunications operator Orange (which is interested in our National IoT Plan) and with Qualcomm. For the latter, which recently announced it is investing US$200 million in a Brazilian chipset factory, IcaroTech could present IoT initiatives that are being leveraged by SMBs in the Campinas ecosystem.
Qualcomm’s Francisco Soares with representatives from Tokenlab, MT4, Sikur, Vortigo and IcaroTech. Orange’s Christophe Flaux with executives from Sofrecom, Navita, Bwtech, EveryTI and IcaroTech.
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#MWC2018, which also brought together government delegations from dozens of countries, allowed companies such as MT4, a Gartner 2017 Cool Vendor, to discuss public-sector purchases of Brazilian technology directly with Telecommunications Secretary André Borges. At the event, the company’s CEO, Marcus Scharra, emphasized the importance of developing Brazilian cybersecurity technologies to protect the country’s infrastructure. Meanwhile, Senator Walter Pinheiro and Ruben Delgado, president of Softex, highlighted the importance of developing technologies focused on education, an important segment for the companies Positivo Informática and EITV, who were accompanying the delegation.
André Borges, Telecommunications Secretary, and Paulo Viana, assistant consul, with the companies MT4, Certisign and Telefônica. Senator Walter Pinheiro, who highlighted education during his talk, in which he brought up Positivo Informática.
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As for the technology trends presented at #MWC2018, we highlight the opportunity that the delegation had to reflect on-site about how Brazil can promote a value proposition around the world in keeping with trends such as BI, Big Data and artificial intelligence, which are the pillars of the IoT technological revolution. Read on to see how busy the Brazilian booth’s lounge remained throughout the meeting.
Ericsson’s Tiago Machado and Telefônica’s Daniel Schiffer discussed the challenges to the operators’ digital transformations. Wavy, from the Movile group, participated in the meeting with Telefônica, with which it maintains a partnership in an education app.
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In terms of fintechs, Rodrigo Mulinari and Rudnei Dutz talked about Banco do Brasil’s Silicon Valley LABB and its partnership with the Rocket.Chat startup, which was part of the delegation. The Brazilian company BRQ, one of the world’s 100 largest fintechs, according to the IDC, honored Banco do Brasil’s presentation.
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The MCTIC, represented by Secretary of Information Technology Tiago Camargo, and the BNDES, by Ricardo Rivera and Carlos Azen, brought direct news about the advances of the National IoT Plan.
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For Tiago Gaspar, CEO of Tokenlab, a company in the delegation with a unique blockchain solution, “there is a lot of highly positive anticipation for the IoT incentive plan. I think it can greatly encourage innovation in the industry, and it’s strongly aligned with what we do”, he said. As for Douglas Bermeijo, CEO of Control, which works heavily in the fields of logistics and smart city, “the line of credit proposed by BNDES with support from MCTIC is a good fundraising solution, since no revenue is produced during research and development, causing companies to be restricted to its partners’ financial resources”.
And let it not be said that we left #MWC2018 without checking out the gadgets launched during the event! Be sure to watch the video produced by Vortigo, an exhibitor at the Brazilian booth, read the WIRED article, and don’t miss the SikurPhone, which was also unveiled at our booth. When it comes to the most-hyped topic of the moment, blockchain technology, the innovation director for Certisign, Latin America’s largest digital certificate provider, gave her opinion, while Rocket.Chat and Senior’s CEO talked about 5G and Latin American innovations in interviews to CNN.
