ARCIA update: news from the Mobile World Congress and IWCE

While March saw ARCIA’s first conference and dinner of the year take place in Perth, it also saw two other significant international events take place in Europe and the USA, namely Mobile World Congress and IWCE, both of which I was fortunate enough to attend.

Mobile World Congress is the showcase for global telecommunications, with over 100,000 visitors and exhibitors as far as the eye can see. With a huge emphasis on everything AI across networks, services and security, of particular interest to our sector is the increased investment in private 5G networks. Many countries, including Australia, have allocated dedicated spectrum for private 5G networks and the ecosystems of networks and devices are now developing at pace to meet the demand from multiple user groups and industry sectors.

Many challenges remain for building private 5G networks here in Australia, and the ARCIA spectrum team is looking at how our we can best work with the various user groups to help enable the timely deployment of this important technology. And while there are lots of discussions around 5G being used as a voice replacement for LMR within private networks, my view is that is still some way off occurring at scale.

IWCE was once again held in Las Vegas in mid-March, and it was great to see the many Australians visiting and exhibiting at the largest LMR conference in North America to make sure they are across developments and trends, and to demonstrate their technologies to this huge market. While the event is focused on the US, there are many parallels, as user needs and the technology mix are very similar.

ARCIA was invited by Andy Maxymillion of Blue Wing Services to join an international public safety panel, where I was joined by one of our Vice Presidents, Chris Stevens, and CEO of TCCA Kevin Graham. With public safety users around the world facing the age-old challenges of budget constraints and increasing demand for better communications services, what we are seeing in the market now to address this is movement from device manufacturers to include LMR, 5G and direct-to-satellite services all on the one device, allowing users to access the best available network, regardless of location. While there are still many questions for direct-to-satellite services in Australia, this has huge potential for public safety users.

Which brings me to Perth, and ARCIA’s first event for 2026, which saw solid numbers gather for our conference, and considered all of the above technologies as part of the professional communications mix. The conference closed with a panel of experts that considered ‘The Evolving Radio & Critical Communications Ecosystem: How Disruptive are Emerging Technologies?’; our WA State Networking Dinner, where David Deacon won the WA State Professional of the Year Award; and a sold-out professional development short course on Antenna & Line Transmission Fundamentals and Line Testing, demonstrating to us that the skills acquired on the day are still very much in demand, despite the continued march of new technologies. Congratulations to David on the award.

If you have team members in NSW, we’ll be running the same course on 13 May, close to the CBD — with limited places available — and running the day prior to the NSW conference and State Networking Dinner, so get in quick. Hamish Duff President (Hon) ARCIA — Australia's Radio & Critical Communications Association

Top image: Mobile World Congress 2026. Credit: iStock.com/Alvarog1970