Network usage fees likely to take center of debate at MWC2023

Major participants in the mobile world congress (MWC) 2023 such as Google Inc. and Netflix Inc. are expected to discuss telecommunications network fees, for which they have been engaged in disputes with broadband companies.

Those platform companies are preparing for intense debates on the topic to be held during the world's largest mobile industry show next week, according to people familiar with the matter in Seoul on Monday.

In that regard, South Korea may draw attention since it is the first country to give a court ruling over a dispute between a content provider and an internet network supplier.

In 2021, global streaming giant Netflix Inc. lost a South Korean court case in the world’s first verdict over a conflict with a broadband firm. It was ordered by a Seoul district court to pay SK Broadband Co. fees for the use of internet networks, but it appealed to a higher court.

About 750 communications service companies from some 220 countries will participate in the mobile industry event. Those companies are all members of the GSM Association, the host of MWC2023.

The GSM is a global organization that represents the interests of mobile network operators.

Thiery Breton, the commissioner for the internet market at the European Union, will be engaged in the discussion over network usage fees as well, together with executives from Netflix and Meta Platforms Inc.

The EU industry chief is known as an advocate for Big Tech bearing some telecoms network costs.

Against this backdrop, South Korea’s Minister of Science and ICT Lee Jong-ho was chosen as a keynote speaker for MWC2023.

During the event, South Korea’s two largest mobile carriers SK Telecom Co. and KT Corp. will showcase their artificial intelligence-based technologies.

Each company will set up a large exhibition booth at the technology show, which will take place in Barcelona, Spain from Feb. 27 to March 2.

SK will unveil its latest technologies related to AI, air taxi or urban air mobility and the 6G mobile network under the theme of “AI, the Wave of Innovation.”

KT will share new technologies about digital transformation (DX), in an effort to transform into a DX platform from a telecommunication service provider.

KT Chief Executive Koo Hyeon-mo will give a keynote speech about the era of co-creation on Feb. 28

Their smaller rival LG Uplus Corp. will not host a booth during the event. Its affiliate LG Electronics Inc. pulled out of the mobile manufacturing market in 2021.

Further, LG Uplus fell victim to a data breach last month, which resulted in the leaked personal information of some of its customers.

Among startups, Dream Ace, a cloud service platform for automobile companies, will jointly run an exhibition booth with Qualcomm Inc.

Some 130 South Korean small-to-medium-sized enterprises and startups will join about 80,000 participating companies for MWC2023.

Meanwhile, Chinese smartphone and hardware manufacturers such as Huawei Technologies Co. and Honor are expected to introduce several new products during the tech show.

Their new smartphones are speculated to look similar to the foldable phones of Samsung Electronics Co., the world’s No. 1 smartphone brand.

MWC2023 will deal mainly with five topics: 5G network acceleration, augmented and virtual reality, OpenNet, fintech and digitalization.

Write to Sang-eun Lucia Lee at selee@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.