When attendees arrive for the start of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on June 28, they will be in for a major surprise.

Instead of the mammoth Ericsson AB booth that normally dominates Hall 2 of Fira Gran Via at the event, they will have an opportunity to mingle with 100 telepresence robots, observe a live television show broadcast from the site, talk personally with over 30 startup companies, and watch legendary rock star Jon Bon Jovi give a concert on one evening.

All of this was made possible when the Swedish telecom giant withdrew from MWC this year and TelcoDR Inc., a consulting firm led by former Optiva Inc. Chief Executive Officer Danielle Royston, took over the venue and named it Cloud City. As demonstrated by the news in April that Amazon Web Services Inc. and DISH Network Corp. would partner to run what is believed to be the first cloud-based 5G Open Radio Access Network, the seas of change are engulfing the telecom industry — and MWC is just one example of the coming disruption.

“Things are changing, and they’re changing really quickly,” Royston said. “A lot of people may have been surprised by the DISH announcement and how closely they are partnering with AWS. I think people thought the cloud move and cloud adoption was years away. The DISH story proves that it’s here and now.”

Royston spoke with John Furrier, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming video studio, in advance of Mobile World Congress 2021. They discussed theCUBE’s participation in livestreaming from the event, booth demos by a number of startup companies and a hint of Royston’s planned keynote message at the conference. (* Disclosure below.)

Cloud-enabled community

In partnership with theCUBE, which will broadcast live interviews with industry leaders and product demonstrations from the 65,000-square-foot booth, TelcoDR plans to offer presentations from its own main stage. The venue will feature an on-stage wall where virtual participants can see and be seen by in-person attendees, an unusual mix of live and virtual coming together in one location and all made possible by the cloud.

“The ‘roomies’ will see the ‘zoomies’ and vice versa,” Royston said. “We wanted to give the booth an experience so it felt like a community. We’re really trying to make Cloud City the epicenter of cloud for telco.”

The TelcoDR booth’s community spirit will be fueled by the presence of a number of startup companies in the cloud space. Participants include Mavenir Inc., a cloud-native Open RAN player; Totogi Inc., a webscale public cloud charging engine recently acquired by Royston’s company; and OneWeb Inc.

“They are a low earth orbiting satellite company that is offering broadband to consumers,” Royston noted of OneWeb.

TelcoDR’s prime spot on the MWC show floor also provided Royston with a slot in the conference’s prestigious keynote program. It will be an opportunity for TelcoDR’s leader to articulate her vision of a telco industry that is cloud-led.

“The biggest speakers in telco have this opportunity, and I’m really happy that GSMA is giving me a chance to share my message,” Royston said. “What I’m going to focus on is a message that: ‘The future is here; the future is now.’”

Here’s the complete video interview, one of many CUBE Conversations from SiliconANGLE and theCUBE. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Mobile World Congress. Neither TelcoDR Inc., the sponsor for theCUBE’s event coverage, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE