You can enable subtitles (captions) in the video player
[MUSIC PLAYING]
5G has been the talk of telecoms town here at Mobile World Congress for years. But 2018 is the year it finally could become reality. With the first commercial launches set to take place later this year, excitement is starting to build. And standing here in Barcelona, there is a growing sense that Europe is being left behind. American and Asian networks are gearing up to launch, where as European carriers are still struggling with onerous regulation and low-growth scenarios.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The push to develop 5G networks has seen the pendulum swing back towards the [? network ?] vendors. Handset makers, usually the star of these shows, have instead turned towards smaller improvements to their phones and even retrograde ideas, like this Nokia, which actually dates back to the 1990s. [MUSIC PLAYING]
But there is still excitement in the telecoms industry. Vodafone and Nokia have teamed up to push to the final frontier. The two companies are set to launch the first telecoms network on the surface of the moon next year to live stream images of a landing back to Earth. That may sound like a gimmick, but scientists argue it is critical to the future of space exploration. Nic Fildes, Financial Times, Barcelona.
