>> Narrator: Live from Silicon Valley, it's The Cube. Covering Mobile World Congress 2017. Brought to you by Intel. >> Kay, welcome back everyone. We're here live in Palo Alto, California for SiliconANGLE Media's The Cube. Coverage of two days of wall-to-wall, eight a.m. pacific time to six both days. Yesterday, Monday. Today, Tuesday. Breaking down the news, getting the analysis, sharing our commentary, and getting reaction, from here inside the studio for folks in Silicon Valley who couldn't make it to Barcelona, but also covering what's happening on the ground. And of course we'd love to phone in and get commentary directly from Barcelona, and we have on the live Peter Jarich who's the Chief Analyst at Global Data, formerly a Current Analyst, Peter thanks for taking the time, I know it's gettin' late there. It's close to bedtime for the people who are burnt out and for the people who are going to go party, they're just going out. Thanks for-- >> Peter: You know, unfortunately it's this thing, then dinner starts at nine o'clock, it's still early, late nights, early mornings but no worries, glad to talk to you guys. >> So, obviously, the show at Mobile World Congress this year is kind a bi-polar, as always, you have the device people making their big announcements on Saturday and Sunday on the weekend leading up to the show, LG, Huawei, and everyone else, but the big phones, and all the, you know, the screens, that's the glam and sizzle, but behind second half of the show is about tel cos, right? The transformation going on the wireless world the, the tel co world, the service provider world, where the new network architecture seems to be the top story. A new network transformation, IOT, Internet of Things with cars, autonomous vehicles, smart cities, and certainly 5G has been at the center of all the action, really since yesterday and today. So I wanted to get your take. Is that actually what's happened, are we reading the tea leaves on the grid properly? Is 5G the top story, or what's your take on the top stories out there right now? >> Peter: Yeah, you know, I mean clearly, as far as the buzz, where the buzz is, you're right, 5G is sucking a lot of the energy out of the (coughing), excuse me, out of the show. It's interesting, I mean it's, the show is, I feel like a proverbial blind man, (mumbling) man. (coughing) Excuse me, I mean, there's so much going on, that depending upon where you want to focus, you could come away with any take away. If you focus on the devices, you could focus on IOT, and you could literally come away with anything. If 5G has been the one piece of news that is sort of in the background of anything, I think it's in the background of everything because in part, the definition of 5G is still broad. Right, there's the radio access side, there's the core network side, IOT is a big part of 5G, reaching out to (mumbling) industries, vertical industry is a big part of it. So, as operators start talking about 5G, it's easy enough for every vendor to sort of just attach themselves in some way, and I think that's what we're seeing here this year. It really is just a question of, how we get the 5G, are we ready for 5G we saw on Sunday, the big news of acceleration, how are we accelerating towards it, (mumbling) deals from a number of major mobile operators and they're talking about how we're going to get there. But that's really from the transformation side of things, completely right. That's the big question on everyone's mind. >> Is 5G ready honestly? It seems to be hyped up big time. As we said in one of our blog posts, "Hug the hype," cause 5G people want to all go there. But is that the real meaty story or is it, it's kind of like the AI in my mind. AI's obviously relevant, but where's the real AI. We're seeing more IOT conversations in the back channel around service provider impact, the IOT, so'd loved to get your thoughts on, you know, the impact of IOT to the business model and architecture, of the service providers. >> Peter: Yeah, it's interesting, because IOT, I mean, I think if we look at IOT versus 5G, right, one is solely sold in that theoretical stage, one is, we kind of understand IOT, and I think the number of times I've heard people talk about IOT is the way that (mumbling) will figure out how to grow their (mumbling) and not just (mumbling) to the bottom line, right? I mean, there's like, last year, and the year before that, and the year before that, there's a lot of discussion around the air transformation that will be opex reduced and it'll be (mumbling) reduced, and then some of it will save them money, but we know that they also struggle to grow their revenues, and proof at the topline. I think a lot of folks are looking at IOT, the question I think is still out there, that I'm not necessarily seeing addressed here, is how, right, because a lot of that focuses on how do they move beyond just being access providers, and we know that, yes, we're going to be talking about the devices, that it'll be low brand with many of them, and so (mumbling) revenues from those may not be where they need to be to really help grow those revenues, and so the question is how we (mumbling) move beyond it? Or how does it mix with the move into industry deep enough so that connectivity (mumbling) be reaching enough industries, reach enough connections, that connectivity (mumbling) will be significant. And I don't know that we've got an answer for that, and everyone's talking about vertical industries. Everyone. And the operators, I think what's interesting, is I heard from both operators and vendors, that we don't know them well enough. >> What's the key enabler-- >> Peter: I was running a panel with CTO's from Ericson, Nokia, Huiwei, and they all said at the end, you know, one of the biggest concerns for 5G is that we pin the hopes of 5G to some extent on helping enable these vertical industries, right? How do we reach out to mining and utilities and smart cities, and how we make 5G be pervasive towards not just consumers but (mumbling) in those markets? That there's no certainty that we actually understand what they need, and it's (mumbling) service to them unsuccessfully, as with some places that (mumbling) automotive that would be good to see progress on, a lot of them I think are still that sort of >> Yeah. >> Peter: We don't know enough to know how we'll help them. >> That's a great analysis. We have Peter on the phone here, an analyst breaking down the commentary. Question for you, as an analyst, you have a good approach on this, and I want to get some commentary on you around for the folks who are trying to keep up with the turbulence, I mean, there's so much going on, you got wireless, which has it's own set of things, is it more bandwidth, or more mobility, what's the trade off, is it a (mumbling), is this spectrum, unlicensed, all this craziness, radios, core network you mentioned, it's a lot of moving parts. Question is, how do you figure out the tell signs of success, and what are red flags, so what are you looking for that is proof points that things are going in the right direction for the industry, and proof points that there's red flags? What do you, what's your key indicators for benchmarking this opportunity around 5G and network transformation? To make all this stuff work? Smart cities, autonomous vehicles, et cetera. >> Peter: To be honest, it's a great question, I think in a lot of the conversations here come down to the focus on business versus technology, right, and I'm not too worried. I mean, we need to continue to watch technology, and make sure technology gets (mumbling) and we need to make sure that what we're hoping to do with 5G, that we can do, and (mumbling) right, the idea of we found something with (mumbling), the twee if you will, for (mumbling), work great. I've got no doubt that we can solve the tecnology issues. Oh that's supporting, unlike the spectrum, or shared spectrum of (mumbling) bands, a millimeter, or whatever (mumbling). No doubt that we can make those work. I think where I look to make sure that things are okay is, you know, none of this will really matter if it's just, 5G is no different than what we saw with 3G or 4G. And one way to think about it is, we moved from 1G to 2G and 2G to 3G and three to four, it was always a fairly one dimensional move. Right, 1G to 2G was really about more voice capacity. 2G to 3G you know, was really moving to do basic data. 3G to 4G was more data, meaning we took IP network. But, you know, what we see with 5G is that it can't just be about more data. It can't just be about faster. We've seen, I mean, heck, just look at the U.S., right, we've seen where the pricing is, and the price wars, so just throwing more bandwidth at this isn't going to help the operators. What we need to do is to figure out how to leverage these new technologies to test new markets and grow the revenues, right, grow their business, and I think that's why we're hearing so many people talk about all these different industries. And do I know that automotive is the best example, no. You know, I think automotive is sexy-- >> Yeah, it's eye candy. It's total eye candy-- >> Peter: You can get people rallied around it, but. You know what, it's public safety, you know, automotive or utilities, or industrial automation or retail, or whatever, that seeing operators build those relationships, manage to serve them, figure out how to serve them (mumbling), that's what I'm looking for, otherwise it's just going to be no different than any other G. >> Yeah. >> Peter: And it'll be sort of a race to the bottom. >> Yeah, I agree. I think another thing too, when you looked at even when wireless was exploding, the question for the carriers and the operators was, can they move past managing subscribers and truck rolls, and building core competencies, to being much more comprehensive through their operations. I think, now more than ever, that's the big pressure point, isn't it? They have to go outside of there core competencies, traditionally, and get down and dirty. >> Peter: Yeah, and you know I'm always encouraged when I see interesting little business models, right, (mumbling) AT&T move it's select products, and try to take it internationally. Or we've seen Verizon do this week. It's interesting seeing those business models. Look what Telfonica is doing, data platforms. You know, I think those innovations are great, but, whether or not they work, I'm not too-- >> Yeah. >> Peter: I'm not too (mumbling) whether or not those work. What I am more concerned about again is how they reach past that consumer and just basically business user, (mumbling) because, you can talk about IOT and I think IOT and 5G get going (mumbling), but with every IOT, except for consumer IOT, which we (mumbling) that's (mumbling) IOT cases are all vertical specific. And so, you're not going to get to address things, your (mumbling) won't, unless they come to understand that and they show that they can actually reach out to those (mumbling). >> Peter Jarich, Chief Analyst at Global Data, formerly Current Analysis, great to chat with you. Calling in from Barcelona, thanks for taking the time. Final question for you. What's the bumper sticker on the show this year? As you look at the formations of what's been announced, and where it's going, the trajectory, wraps up, you know, next day and a half. What's going to be the bumper sticker for this year's Mobile World Congress? >> Peter: You know, honestly, I think what's probably surprising is, so the bumper sticker will probably be LTE before 5G. And what I mean is as much as we're talking about 5G and really those being our big sexy topics, and seeing so many operators talking about how they see it in the near term, going into the long term, LTE supporting them, especially with gigabit LTE speed. And you've got Qualcomm talking about what they can do, (mumbling) LTE speeds are only 20 megahertz LTE carrier than you'd even notice (mumbling). You hear T-Mobile, who came up from the first morning at presentation, there was a session, media event with Ericson, and as much as Ericson was talking about 5G, (mumbling) from T-Mobile got to talk about how excited they are about their LTE network, right. And I think there is this recognition that yes, 5G is coming, but (phone cuts out). >> Alright Peter, we just lost you there. Quick, quick I lost my battery on my phone here, or the speaker. Thanks so much for your commentary, really appreciate it. >> Peter: No, no worries, no worries. Thanks again, and feel free to reach out any time. >> Alright, have a great time in Barcelona. Get some sleep, or go out, hit the night clubs. As always, going on the ground, getting to our friends and colleagues out doing the work, pounding the pavement, that's Peter, he's got the great commentary. We'll have that on replay as well, and it'll be up on YouTube as well, so this is The Cube, with more coverage from Mobile World Congress after this short break. (electronic music)

>> Announcer: Live from Silicon Valley it's theCUBE! Covering Mobile World Congress 2017. Brought to you by Intel. >> Okay, welcome back everyone. We're here live in Palo Alto for special Mobile World Congress 2017 coverage. Mobile World Congress is happening in Barcelona, Spain and we are covering it here in Palo Alto and covering all the action as day two of Mobile World Congress winds down. We have reporters, analysts in the field in Barcelona calling in, we have Peter Jarich coming up soon, a call in. We've had Scott Raynovich, analyst, called in earlier. We have reports: go to SiliconANGLE.com for all the action. Go to Cube365.net/MWC17, that is our new Cube365 software, a digital hub to aggregate all the top stories, all the signal from the noise at Mobile World Congress and that site is sponsored by Intel. I want to thank Intel for allowing us to do 30 great interviews here in studio as well as a variety of great content that we're getting in from phone-ins and friends on the ground in Barcelona to get you all the top stories, and of course we'll bring you commentary and analysis here inside theCUBE. I had a chance to talk to Intel at 1:30 this morning, in California time, early morning Tuesday time here, Tuesday time in Barcelona. Had a chance to talk with Sandra Rivera, who's the Corporate Vice President/General Manager of Intel's Network Platforms Group. She is in charge of the Intel Technology Group that brings the end-to-end transformation. Really getting 5G ready, part of the Intel brain trust and the leader and really taking the world by storm. 5G obviously the top story and underneath the hood of 5G is the network transformation. I had a chance to ask some very pointed questions, like, "Is 5G ready for prime time?" and, "What's it going to take to change the game "to bring a new business model to power "all the new use cases like autonomous vehicles, "smart cities, a new kind of media and entertainment "landscape as well as smart homes "and smart businesses?" So, let's hear what Sandra had to say, and here's my interview from this morning in Barcelona." >> Sandra: Well, I would certainly say it's revolution not evolution. If you look at all the previous generations of radio technology, 2G, 3G, 4G, it was largely driven by connecting people to other people, and of course the voice era with the 2G and 3G, came the app revolution, and us connecting with our loved ones over social media and all of the new capabilities that we found on the Internet. 4G then became about more capacity and coverage and faster upload and download speeds. With all of the, again, social media and video and media processing. But 5G is fundamentally different because it really brings together the computing and communications paradigm. It is truly that convergence of both computing and communication, and so, in addition to the billions of people that we've been connecting and all the other generations of radio technology, we are now connecting tens of billions of things in that era of 5G. And a lot of what we're seeing here on the ground is just some of those use cases are starting to merge in terms of once you really converge computing and communications, what is possible? What is possible to do? >> John: The big conversation that we've been having yesterday on theCUBE was the confluence between consumer technology and enterprise technology from a business model standpoint. We hear the word "digital transformation," that's the business model for pretty much the global business landscape, but really there's a lot of stuff going on under the hood around, you guys are calling, network transformation. Your CEO was talking on Fortune before the show started about this end-to-end architecture. >> Sandra: Yes, so when we talk about end-to-end, we do talk about every every point of either accessing or delivering information at the end either between people or between things. So it's from the jump-on point, if you will, on the network and the access layer and so of course it's all the new radio technologies up to the edge of a network where a lot of the decision points and the data analytics live and exist, up to the core of the network, which again, is the workhorse of where things are routed and where traffic is steered and what is the different types of traffic that you're trying to get from the source to the endpoint, and then of course back into the data center in the cloud, which is the place where most of the content is either originated or stored or served up. So when we talk about end-to-end, we do talk about every point in that continuum, and the need to have programmable, intelligent computing and communications capability which is very very different from what we've had historically from a network infrastructure perspective. So network transformation is all about embracing server-based technologies and the volume economics benefits that that brings for its relation technology and the fact that you can pool assets and use 'em across many different users and use cases, and of course cloud as both a technology and a business model and the idea that you can lease an asset and afford to lease almost unlimited compute capability, and then release it when you're done. So that end-to-end view and that transformation of the underlying infrastructure is really what we talk about when we talk about network transformation and because 5G requires that programmable computing capability all across that continuum, and in particular being closer and closer to those endpoints, whether they're the autonomous car, or they're drones, or robots, or of course the things that we're quite familiar with in terms of tablets and laptops and smartphones, that is really what we're now enabling under that umbrella of network transformation and 5G is accelerating. >> John: And for the folks watching and listening, we had a great interview with Lynn Comp, who went and did a drill down on NFE and some of those cool tech behind that. On the business model, kind of the landscape question, you mentioned drones, certainly hot. People can look at drones, they see the autonomous vehicles. This is an environment where these new applications and use cases are emerging. So there always seems to be the challenge, and we had an expert discussion this morning in theCUBE here in Palo Alto, around the trade-off between bandwidth and true mobility, and sometimes there is some trade-offs. And not one technology or partner will win it, and you guys are a big part of that. What is your view and Intel's view on the kinds of robust, diverse technologies that are needed to balance the many use cases, and at the same time, create an open ecosystem around fostering this new future growth, which seems to be a big wave we haven't seen since the iPhone in 2007. This is a really game changer. How do you guys view this multitude of technologies and diverse ecosystem and how do you guy foster that? >> Sandra: As Intel, we are a technology innovator and a technology leader and of course that clock never stands still, right? So you need to innovate (laughs) on the technology front and bring out new capabilities, and in particular as that computing and communications world come together, we know that we need to integrate more of the network and wireless IP into the standard roadmap of processors and capabilities that we bring to the market, both in hardware and software ingredients. But as we do that, we are trying to protect the software investment that the developers make in bringing new and emerging applications to market. So while we have, of course, huge CPU assets within Intel, we also have SCGA assets for use cases that would involve changing algorithms, whether they're security algorithms that are deployed differently in different parts of the world, different countries, or of course artificial intelligence, which is again an emerging field with new algorithms and new computational requirements, or on the radio side where the 5G wireless standards are going to be taking route and solidifying over the next several years and continue to evolve. You want to have that programmability so the SCGA assets come into play. And then we leverage that even further with some of the ASIC competency that we have, where you really do work in a hardened piece of silicon, on the ability to run very very fast calculations, many many times over, and to do it in as efficient possible way, both from a cost and count perspective. But all of that underlying hardware and silicon architecture choice really needs to be served up to a broad ecosystem through a software framework that is consistent and undeterministic in where you have a very robust toolchain which is really what Intel invests in. So we invest in robust and comprehensive software tools and frameworks so that we can tap into the very broadest application developer ecosystem that exists in the world. And that's how we see the capabilities that we bring to market tapping into our technology innovation in silicon and software ingredients, but then tapping into, again, something that we believe deeply in, which is a broad ecosystem, and the more market participation you have, the faster that innovation curve that you can drive. >> John: "Rising tide floats all boats," I love that saying, I think that seems to be the case here. Sandra, I want to get your thoughts on the business model on telcos and the industry. People know Mobile World Congress is the big show, but it's also where everyone who's anyone in the business goes, it's a lot of business conversations. I'm sure you're backed up between meeting and meeting after meeting because you got a lot of customers there. Take us through some of the hallway conversations you're having or specific business conversations that you're meeting with customers. What's the buzz in the hallways and what specific conversations are you having with the customers around commercializing, not just accelerating, but commercializing the business models that are going to emerge from these new use cases? >> Sandra: Yeah, well you know actually that's a great question because I've been coming to Mobile Congress for many many years and a lot of the network transformation discussions, and a lot of the discussions even around NFE and FEN in years past, have been rooted in the desire to try to achieve the lower cost point, a total cost of operation that was lower, when you move from fixed-function, purpose-filled, can't reprogram, reprovision the hardware to do anything other than what it was originally designed to do, even though the asset utilization on that investment was very low, 20% maybe 30% at best. So it was this desire to move to, again, volume economics and server-based technology and the benefits of virtualization and pooling. So it started in a cost-optimization type of conversation, but the map moved in the last year, certainly with 5G, into much more, "Well how do we innovate "services faster? "How do we bring new capabilities to market? "And how do we really help to grow the top line, "not just manage our costs?" And I think that's what you're seeing at this event this year, is the excitement around virtual reality and augmented reality, the excitement around a smart home and all the capabilities that you'll have in your appliances and in your infrastructure in your own home and how you run your household. Seeing all of the innovations that we've got in smart cities, so smart lighting, smart water systems, smart meters, and smart parking, another thing that we're seeing here in terms of a set of use cases that we're enabling. Of course, no trade show event that you're talking about in terms of new use cases and new experiences is complete without an autonomous car, so we have a beautiful BMW 7 Series auton. vehicle that we're showcasing here, but again, this is part of what we're enabling in terms of new use cases when you have virtual unlimited computes being brought to the edge of the network with all new radio technologies to address a lot of that bandwidth, a lot of that latency, highly sensitive type of ultra-reliable capability that you need for an autonomous car. So what you're seeing is these smart cities and virtual reality and autonomous driving and smart home, and how all of the underlying technologies make that possible. And from a business perspective, all those new services are clearly what the communication service providers are trying to deliver to the market and trying to do it in a way that embraces cloud business models but also working with all of the enterprises and that traditional business, whether it's an automotive industry or whether it's an industrial automation industry or even all of the appliances that go into your home. All these traditional businesses really disrupting themselves to embrace technology and to bring many more capabilities that, again, have never been possible before. >> John: Yeah the car really brings this data center to the edge in full light for the consumer. It's a moving data center, needs to talk to a base station, needs to talk to the network. And really, this is the new normal. You see Alexa in the home and the voice activation, all the coolness going on there. And a lot of folks have criticized the telcos in the past for being very good at turning on subscribers and billing them as their core competency. But now with IOT, you have literally, you know, provisioning that's happening so fast and so dynamic, you have literally anything with a SIM card is now on the network. This kind of changes the notion of a subscriber. So, moving from that bill to operational in this new thousands of things and people on the network, it's not as clean as it was in the old days. Are the telcos on this? Do they get this concept? I mean, this changes the requirements for the network to be more dynamic and manage the technologies. >> Sandra: It's a fundamental transformation that they're going through, rooted in an urgent business problem that they have, which is that the more data that is created and consumed, the more they have to build out the capacity, but they have to do that in an affordable way, and they can't do it when they're provisioning new services and capabilities and hardware, and particularly in hardware that only does what it was originally intended to do, and they're now moving to a model that is software-defined, where you are able to innovate and provision and deploy at the speed of software, not being anchored in hardware. But they really are absolutely welcoming that opportunity, again, to bring those new services and capabilities to market when they can create a network infrastructure that becomes a platform of innovation, where they can attract developers to imagine new use cases and applications and capabilities that they themselves have the DNA to do but they have such unique assets. They have spectrum, they have contextual information about network bandwidth and conditions. They have customer profile information. They have a billing relationship. >> John: They need security, too, as well. >> Sandra: They have security and reliability, and I mean, all of those assets, if they can tap into that and serve that up, as again, a platform upon which innovation can happen, then that's really their endgame. So while, to your point, they may have been criticized as being kind of slow moving, we really do see them embracing fully this idea that, in order to grow their top lines, and in order to innovate faster in terms of services that, embracing again this fundamental different architectural model of computing and communication converging the server-based and cloud-based technologies, is the wave of the future. And you know 5G just put the nice bow on it, right, because it just makes everything go faster given that all these new use cases that we're looking to enable. >> Producer: Hey John, you only have one question left, so key money question if you want. >> John: Great, my final question. Sandra, my final question is: what's the bumper sticker this year for Mobile World Congress?" If you had to put the bumper sticker on the car, what would it say this year to encapsulate Mobile World Congress? >> Sandra: So for me, it's "5G Starts Today." Because, in order to be ready for all those drones and robots and autonomous cars and all of those immersive experiences in your living room, you really have to transform the network infrastructure today, and that composability of the network infrastructure of the ability to capture a slice of the network and optimize it in realtime for your use case, all that requires programmable, scalable, flexible computing that is secure, that's reliable, and that embraces cloud architectures and cloud business models. And so that is happening today to get ready for 2018, 2019, 2020, when you see many more of those endpoints, those end devices, and those use cases come to be realized, you need to get started today. So 5G is absolutely on its way, and we're very very excited to be a key enabler of that vision. >> John: Sandra Rivera, thanks so much. Corporate Vice President/ General Manager of the Network Platforms Group at Intel. Really bringing the end-to-end technology enabling communications service providers to take their networks to the next level. Getting ready for 5G and bringing the performance to the edge of the network. Thanks for taking the time on theCUBE, calling in from Barcelona, really appreciate it. Have a great day. >> Sandra: Thanks, John, you too! (pulsing music)