Mobile World Live brings you our top three picks of the week, which included an Ericsson pledge to open fronthaul across its cloud RAN and radio portfolio, the debut of Meta Platforms’ Quest 3 headset and CTIA president and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker cautioning MWC Las Vegas attendees that a lack of spectrum authority put the US at risk of being overshadowed by China and other countries.

Ericsson claims open RAN milestone

What happened: Starting in 2024, Ericsson will introduce compatibility for open fronthaul across its cloud RAN and radio portfolio.

Why it matters: The vendor claimed the move underscored its commitment to leading the industrialisation of open RAN, which included working with the O-RAN Alliance to define a next-generation open fronthaul interface required to improve performance.

Meta Platforms unleashes Quest 3, AI assistant

What happened: Meta Platforms unveiled its Quest 3 headset and detailed a push around AI through new tools for its Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp services at its Meta Connect developer event.

Why it matters: Anisha Bhatia, senior analyst at GlobalData, stated one of the advantages Quest 3 has over Apple’s Vision Pro was the absence of tethering for the battery. She also noted Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 makes Meta Platforms’ device more powerful and twice as fast as the premium Quest Pro, ‘taking it a step further towards being user friendly”.

CTIA chief fears waning US influence in global 5G

What happened: CTIA president and CEO Meredith Attwell Baker stated the US is squandering its global leadership in 5G due to the absence of a spectrum allocation policy, which she claimed is allowing China and other countries to shape decisions.

Why it matters: Attwell Baker said it is critical the US government renew its commitment to leading the world in spectrum and 5G policies and noted a need for a clear vision for key bands ahead of an upcoming industry conference.