 Welcome to the World Radio Communication Conference 2023 WRC 23 being held here in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates where I've got the great pleasure of being joined in the studio this morning. I'm Mr Matt Granred who is the Director General of GSFA and also a Commissioner for the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development. Matt, welcome to the studio. Thank you very much. Great to be here. You're no stranger to ITU events. In fact, as I say obviously with regards to the Broadband Commission and I know we've seen you at plenty of ITU events as well. GSMA comprises of more than 1,100 mobile operators and organisations in the digital ecosystem around the world. GSMA has got an exhibition stand here as well and it has said and I quote, together we believe that WRC 23 can make decisions for the benefit of billions. I wanted to ask you how does that stand from your perspective? No, I think that's very true. I mean WRC is a critical event for us. It's where we agree the future spectrum. We harmonise spectrum and spectrum is our lifeline. It's the blood that makes mobile operators work and the billions is really, we have three focus areas this time. One is the low band, the 400 to 600 megahertz and that band is really for the billions where we see that we have now the opportunity to build out networks to make sure that we can not only cover, which we cover 95% of the population right now, but to build capacity, make sure that people can actually get online through a mobile device. Link to that is of course the mid band, the 3.3, 3.4 gigahertz all the way up to 6 gigahertz. Now these bands are also equally important to build capacity, make sure that we can build out business to business solutions in a harmonised way because it's all around us agreeing on spectrum bands so we can roam, we can have the same APIs globally. So therefore it is really an event that affects billions of people. And how will a successful WRC 23 do you think bring the whole world on a journey towards a brighter and more prosperous future? Well, through what I said, I think that if we can agree on these different spectrum bands, the low band, the mid band and the slightly higher up to the 6 gigahertz, I think we have a good portfolio of capacity to build out our networks for the future. So with 5G now really kicking in properly and we see more and more business to business applications, we crave, we must have more spectrum, otherwise the whole industry will be sort of strangulated. So it is critically important that this becomes a success here in WRC. Now anybody who's been to Barcelona at the beginning of the year, certainly last year would be no stranger to the Mobile World Congress which pretty much takes over the whole city there, thousands and thousands flood in for that, not just mobile operators but also anybody who is interested in technology and it's very much a key event and also brings together ministers too. It's growing from strength to strength and I know you have others also around the world as well. But focusing on Barcelona in 2024, what could people expect when they attend? It's going to be around applications around 5G. I'm going to talk a lot around Open Gateway which is basically API roaming. Of course there will be a lot of discussions around AI and the use of AI of post-quantum. How do we prepare ourselves for a world where we have already sort of been in a quantum type of situation? I think we will see a lot of different use cases. As you rightly said, we are sort of 750 mobile operators globally but then you have four or five hundred enterprises as well. A typical event in Barcelona, 60-70% of participants exhibitors are from outside of the ICT sector, from outside. And I think that just shows how important connectivity is for mobile operators for sure but more so for businesses as well. Everyone is trying to figure out how can I use this device, how can I use the connectivity, how can I use a 5G environment with good speed, ultra-low latency, ubiquitous coverage to my advantage? How can I prosper from that? And the way to see that, the way to learn is at MWC in Barcelona. So I mean, we are practically sold out. It's going to be a fantastic event. Last year we were 95,000 or so. It's not really about the numbers, it's more about having the right people because this is a business to business event where we come and we make business. So we really look forward to Barcelona. We look forward to being with you then too. Finally, you're here, you're taking the time to be here. I know that you're jet-setting around. I know you're going off somewhere else tomorrow but I wanted to ask you, while you're here in the studio, is there a message that you would like to convey to our viewers and listeners? Well, I think I'm heading to Rialdo where we have a smaller event called M360 in a couple of weeks' time, which is equally important for us. I think the message is, let's agree on a harmonized spectrum globally. And I think the sooner we can do that, the better it is. And then it's all around, let's build out and make business happen. I think the world needs to unite around something and unite around technology is actually one of the best things. Very wise words. Well, Matt, thank you so much for joining us in the studio today. We look forward to catching up with you again very soon. Thank you. It's always a pleasure to be here. Thank you. 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