“This Whisper Report investigates what mobile tech trend will blindside CIOs next? Researched on‑site at MWC in Las Vegas, it brings together firsthand perspectives from mobility leaders shaping the next wave of disruption. Insights include GetWireless’ Anthony Besett, Comfone’s Randall Peterson, Canoga Perkins’ Siddharth Khattar, and Schneider Electric’s Katie Boeh, each offering a distinct view into the forces set to catch CIOs off‑guard.”
Published to Readers: December 10, 2025 ID: TBW2110
Whisper Club Release: December 10, 2025
Public and Video Release: February 24, 2026
Analyst(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
Photojournalist(s): Dr. Doreen Galli
Abstract
“This Whisper Report investigates the biggest 5G myth tech leaders still believe. Insights from MWC Las Vegas reveal why common assumptions—like 5G being only about bandwidth, too costly, or reserved for telecom giants—are wrong. These misconceptions can stall innovation and strategy. Explore how 5G is enterprise-ready, cost-effective, and far more transformative than most expect. If your roadmap relies on outdated beliefs, this report will challenge and reshape your perspective.”
Target Audience Titles:
Chief Information Officer (CIO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Chief Digital Officer (CDO), VP of Network Engineering, VP of IT Infrastructure, Head of Enterprise Architecture, Director of Mobility & Wireless Strategy
Enterprise Network Architect, Wireless Systems Engineer, IT Infrastructure Engineer, Mobility Solutions Specialist, Telecom Integration Engineer, Cloud & Edge Computing Engineer
Key Takeaways
5G delivers far more than bandwidth—it enables future-proofing and advanced capabilities critical for enterprise innovation.
Private 5G is cost-effective, often cheaper than traditional wireless, and offers unique advantages over Wi-Fi.
5G is enterprise-ready today, with deployment and management as simple as traditional IT networks
We took the most frequently asked and most urgent technology questions straight to the mobility and wireless experts gathering at the MWC Las Vegas held at the Fontainebleau. This Whisper Report addresses the question regarding the biggest 5G myth tech leaders still believe as depicted in Figure 1.
Our first myth comes from GetWireless’ Kalpit Kadia, “5G is more like a throughput requirement than future proofing.” If you believe the only thing 5g brings to the table is bandwidth you are missing it. Kalpit continued. “So it’s not all about through requirement. It’s you know also to do with future proofing your product because as network infrastructure is changing by different carriers, it’s a good idea to move to a 5g stack technology which is going to be here around here for a long time.” Remember when you enable 5g in our organization you empowered it with more than just bandwidth, you enabled all the capabilities that come with 5g beyond the bandwidth.
The next myth is a critical one particular for those building out wireless infrastructure in public spaces. Baicells’ Minchul Ho argued that the biggest myth is, “the cost or differentiation from Wi-Fi.” Minchul elaborated further. “There’s a huge upside to 5G that you cannot get with any other wireless technologies at about the same price if not half the cost of what traditional wireless system would take.” If you are working on your business justification for 5g expansion in your organization, be sure to schedule an inquiry with your analyst at TBW Advisors LLC. We can review not only your strategy and roadmap, but help ensure the major use cases in your organization have been captured to ensure maximum business impact.
Perhaps the biggest myth of all is brought to us by Canoga Perkins’ Siddharth Khattar. “That private 5G is still seen by many as a telecom only technology. Something that is hard to roll out, something that is hard to administer across your enterprise networks and comes with enterprise environments and therefore comes with a lot of expense and it’s always a technology for somebody else.” The reality is 5g is enterprise ready and is not just for telecoms for tech giants. Even more important is the easy of deployment and management as Siddharth explains further. “What we are doing the truth is that today’s private 5G networks can be administered and managed much more like IT and enterprise that people that CIOS and organizations are used to doing. Be able to administer and manage that as easily as you would a as easily as you would your traditional IT networks today with so much more functionality than what they deliver today.”
In conclusion, 5g is about so much more than the bandwidth, is cost effective, and is ready today for you to deploy in your organization.
MWC Las Vegas brought 85 sponsors and exhibitors to the Fontainebleau, Las Vegas. An amazing 61% of the attendees were C-Suite or senior level from the wireless and mobility specialty space within telecommunications industry. TBW Advisors LLC Captured over 40 minutes of video across 36 segments including 4 keynote highlights, a livestream and expo hall walkabout. Expo hall featured 4g and 5g equipment, IoT platforms, mobile networks and data centers in a box were all found along with mission critical, latency bound, deterministic networking equipment. This edition includes four unlisted Whisper Report playlists and concludes with a video montage answering: “What’s the best part about attending MWC live in Las Vegas?”
A community 85 sponsors, exhibitors, and sponsors across three stages and five summits gathered at Mobile World Congress Las Vegas 2025. Held at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas, 45% of attendees came from enterprise with 61% being C-Suite or senior level.
Cautions
Friendly reminder: this research provides examples of what was shared with us at the event, not an evaluation, validation, or recommendation of the given technology.
After 6,000 steps, 36 videos and over 40 minutes of video including a livestream from onsite and over 10 fact checks, our coverage of MWC Las Vegas also known as MWC25 closes. Coming from the mobility world with specialized expertise in Privacy, at TBW Advisors LLC we understand mobile applications are data goldmines. As such, we do not use event mobile applications. However, at MWC the mobile app was required to enter the 6th floor of the Fontainebleau. After getting through that checkpoint, registration was quite efficient with no significant registration lines. The 85 sponsors lit up expo hall where they also served some scrumptious food. As MWC was hosted in one of the most elite hotels in Las Vegas, we were admittedly excited to hear what the guests thought of the food. Breakfast got rave reviews even though it was an English muffing egg sandwich. Lunch offered both a cold sandwich option, extensive dessert options, and a hot lunch offering that admittedly smelled like you were at Grandma’s house! It just had the home cooked smell, look, and feel but you can see for yourself!
We once again live streamed from onsite Tuesday. During this quicker live stream, I requested those attending to find me to answer Questions 1-3, to let you know about upcoming events we have scheduled and requesting assistance. Specifically, I requested assistance on your favorite videos for my segment on the October 17th broadcast edition of Computer Talk Radio.
While at MWC 2025, we conducted research for three additional forthcoming Whisper Reports for our clients. The playlists are unlisted but available and will eventually fill in with the video version of the report so you may wish to bookmark these playlists.
Readers and viewers wishing to relive or experience the entire event are encouraged to view the Conference Whispers: MWC 2025 Playlist in its entirety. The playlist will be sited in the end screen, description, and as a pinned comment of the video edition.
The video edition will conclude with gratitude towards those that contributed and a montage of their responses to Question 4, “What’s the best part about attending MWC live in Vegas?”.
At MWC Las Vegas we were informed that they had a special platform I could use to record, but only at keynotes. After recording we were informed that we could post and include a highlight of the various keynotes. Thus, this event’s opening keynote session videos are all processed highlight videos of what we captured. CTIA stands for Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association and is the sponsoring organization along with GSMA the GSM Association. GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications. Therefore, within telecommunications, this is a specialty event for mobile and wireless telecommunications. CTIA’s President and CEO, Ajit Pai’s keynote emphasized the importance of governments unlocking spectrum so their industry can unlock success for our country. His speech was followed by a fireside chat he had with Verizon Business CEO Kyle Malady. Building on the same theme, their chat emphasized that capacity drives growth for businesses. After their chat, Google Cloud’s Anil Jain joined the stage for a roadmap to an autonomous organization. Anil remained on stage and was joined by a star-studded stage for their panel on first-hand knowledge from the frontier. It is no surprise that the tried-and-true advice for transformation has remained the same for the next wave. Get buy in from the top. If your organization is approaching or in the midst or even thinking about a transformation – be sure to schedule your inquiry with your TBW Advisors’ Analyst to review your strategy and plans.
During our Earth Day Panel, TBW Advisors LLC emphasized that data centers and many IoT solution always involve seeking power solutions. At MWC we ran into none other than Schneider Electric ready to solve your power management problems. For organizations prioritizing hardware agnostic IoT solutions, Live4IoT would like to share hardware and carrier agnostic IoT platform with you. Comfone is redefining what it means and more importantly costs to Roam with their eSIM. Simply need 4g and 5g equipment; Baicells may align with your interests. However, if locating a master distributor for anything cellular is part of your current focus, GetWireless is among the few.
Whether your government use case demands it or you just need a small remote server for compliance as discussed in our coverage of G2E, they were found at MWC complete with telecommunications access. Kontron was on the floor with their 5g modules integrated into servers. Seeking a rugged portable network in a box for any type of network connection? Eucast showcased their network in a box offering enabling many critical use cases. If your uses case is so mission critical that it requires bounded latency with a deterministic network? Good news! Canoga Perkins showcased their bounded latency deterministic network equipment here in Vegas.
*When vendors’ names are shared as examples in this document, it is to provide a concrete example of what was on display at the conference, not an evaluation or recommendation. Evaluation and recommendation of these vendors are beyond the scope of this specific research document. Other examples products in the same category may have also been on display.
CES 2020 allowed over 175,000 attendees from 160 countries to see more than 4,400 exhibitors and 250 conference sessions, with 11 official venues totaling over 2.9 million net square feet of exhibits. Attendees described the event as “huge,” although many first-timers used the word “overwhelming.” There were advances and capability announcements across the 36 product categories and 22 marketplaces, including Internet of Things, now more appropriately called Intelligence of Things. CES 2020 brought current technology advances in 5G, quantum computing, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality together to welcome the new decade of technology and the 4th industrial revolution.
