F1 champion Lewis Hamilton was at MWC 2016 to give added pull to the message of electric and self-driving cars and the use of data. F1 uses telemetry from the race cars so that data from the car can be sent to the pit team while the car is still on the track. This means more data and faster decisions for the pit team. This makes a difference in how the car is set up which can be the difference between the chequered flag and finishing in the chasing pack. To quote Lewis Hamilton ‘In the past we had these long, long waits while they downloaded data. It’s incredible how quick the turnaround is now.’

So what can the service providers at MWC learn from the world of Formula 1? Certainly the use of data to make quicker, smarter decision to improve performance seems a logical step. Like the F1 pit teams, the outcome of decisions that service providers make is very much dependent on the quality and the timeliness of the data that they can collect.

One of the talking points at MWC is how can service providers open new revenue streams in light of data commoditization. We’re seeing a significant move to content partnerships and multi-play offers are very much the order of the day. But what is still lacking in many operators is the ability to get a holistic view of the customers across all services that they consume from a multi-play service provider. This is the result of data silos and using batch data to drive campaigns, offer management, CRM and customer experience management. Like the F1 teams the speed and quality of the data service providers use to make decisions can make all the difference. Disjointed data means disjointed decisions that can leave the communication service provider in the pits while the new digital service provider is speeding up the home straight.

Talking of being in the pits, you cannot have MWC without the annual protest or industrial action. With almost 100,000 people coming to Barcelona for MWC the city’s transport system would be stretched.  This, decided the Metro drivers, provided the perfect conditions to strike. The result: traffic chaos that could hold up even Lewis Hamilton – but I’m pretty sure he arrived here by helicopter.