While I didn’t cross paths with any celebrities who graced the show floor at CTIA Super Mobility 2016 (i.e. Mark Cuban and the legendary John Legend), I did see something that made me look twice…a couple of dancing trees. These budding entertainers were part of the Smart City Park, featuring “smart” solutions from bike locks to light poles. Several CTIA partners collaborated on this interactive installation including, AT&T, Ericsson, Noke, Nokia, nrg and ZTE.
The park was the perfect sanctuary from the show floor noise with places to sit and enjoy the greenspace. For those with a bit more energy to burn, there was mini-golf, bikes and daily fitness classes. The park also served as a venue for the launch party to announce a new location for CTIA Super Mobility 2017 in San Francisco, Sept. 12-14.
After emerging from the serenity of the Smart City Park, a dim lingering hum could be heard from afar. I went to scout out the source of this noise and discovered an enclosed drone airfield in the middle of the show floor! Regrettably, the noise and billowing wind was a bit much to handle, so I quietly retreated back to our booth where we were hosting demos and media briefings for The MulteFire Alliance. We spent most of the show hours talking to press and attendees the benefits of MulteFire technology, providing a new way to wireless with LTE-like performance in the unlicensed spectrum.
Although I did not have the time to attend any of the sessions or keynotes throughout the week, I quickly gathered that 5G was the main focus for the show in terms of future implementations for connectivity and capacity. It will be exciting to see what 5G brings to the industry as a unifying fabric across mobile broadband and IoT devices.
All-in-all it was a successful week at CTIA Super Mobility and we look forward to our upcoming travel to Broadband World Forum in London next month.