Femtocells and Rubber Stairs: Bring Em On!

Having recovered from man flu caught somehow on the Fira show grounds, I can now reflect on the whole Mobile World Congress experience.

Some inital thoughts in no order of importance whatsover.

1. MWC doesn't roll off the tongue like 3GSM. Journos, clients and prospects regularly had to correct themselves.

2. Femtocells have been annointed the great hope of the industry. One analyst who came to our pre-show party said femtocells had popped up like mushrooms in the last 12 months. But the nagging issue for me is how are the operators going to convince ordinary punters to have a 3G base station in their home. Scientific facts support femtocell makers and operators but when did rational argument stop the general public's irrational fears about mobile phone radiation?

3. One big innovation for MWC2009 should be replace those lovely stone stairs with something a little more forgiving on sore feet e.g. rubber, deep pile carpet, anything except marble, limestone or whatever else those stairs are made of between the two levels in Hall 2. Opportunities to ride on an escalator became a real pleasure for this visitor. Moving pavements. Rickshaws. Sedan Chairs. Cable Cars. Anything that makes trudging around the show ground a little less physically punishing.

4. Tell office manager to not book me into a hotel near Barcelona city cathedral. Spent nights discovering the delights of medieval clocks and their bonging mechanisms. One bong for first quarter, two bongs for second quarter, three bongs for third quarter and four bongs for forth quarter, plus a sequence of bongs for the hour. I think you get the idea of what the whole auditory experience was like....