Welcome to Cloud City!

The public cloud showcase features over 30 exhibitors and a four-day conference with a line-up of thought leaders from across the cloud ecosystem, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Aurea, LastMileXchange, Mavenir, Microsoft, and Nokia.

Cloud City is the brainchild of Danielle Royston (DR), CEO of TelcoDR, who seized “an opportunity of a lifetime” to take over the 6,000-square-meter space that Ericsson abandoned when it decided not to attend MWC21 due to COVID-19 precautions. For Royston, the symbolism could not more perfect.

“Customers who have been visiting the Ericsson booth for over 14 years, will return to the space and now see my future forward message, instead of the legacy past, and learn about all things public cloud and Open RAN”, she said.

But it was not easy. It usually takes almost a full year to plan a major exhibition space, but Royston did it in just three months with help from hundreds of people and dozens of agencies. The space is designed for the telco industry to meet, learn, get immersed, do deals, relax, refuel, and imbibe.

“We set out to show senior telco execs that there’s more to see than the legacy players – all of whom have abandoned the show – and show them the new technology that’s going to help them revitalise their organisations,” she said.

There’s a huge opportunity for telcos to capitalise on this shift

The exhibitors are spread across three areas where the cloud can have a big impact on telcos – with the exhibition either live in person or via dozens of telepresence robots.

The New Subscriber Experience area is dedicated to showing how operators can improve average revenue per user (ARPU) with a greater focus on customers. It features a 360-degree immersive demo that will show what the subscriber experience could look like.

The New Network space is where Open RAN and other network technologies can be found. Exhibitors and demos show what telcos can do with public cloud at the edge as well as in core networks.

And the Future of Work area shows solutions for new work environments that have changed dramatically in the last year. “The pandemic showed us that the only way to deliver these experiences was with the public cloud and the network. There’s a huge opportunity for telcos to capitalise on this shift and sell xTTH for the world’s employees,” she said.

Amidst all the heady public cloud business, Cloud City brings the fun too with happy hour fiestas and live music at the end of each busy day. Cloud City Unplugged is a three-day concert line-up with performances from legendary musicians Rosario Flores, Jon Bon Jovi, and DJ Afishal.

On Tuesday, 29 June, DR will deliver a keynote speech at MWC21 that will be broadcast at 9:30 am (CET).