Barcelona (AFP) - The world’s largest wireless technology showcase kicked off on Monday, with excitement over AI’s potential to transform gadgets clashing with concerns over trade tensions fuelled by the United States.

The annual Mobile World Congress (MWC), which is set to draw around 100,000 attendees in Barcelona, opened the day before fresh American tariffs come into force on Chinese goods.

And Europe was in the sights of US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chief Brendan Carr, who called EU tech regulations “excessive” in a panel discussion.

A dense crowd packed the halls between stands blazing with screens from early morning, hunting out the latest devices and innovations from manufacturers or set to participate in debates about the future of the industry.

Telecoms chiefs appealed for easier regulation and greater freedom to merge their businesses in Europe as they seek fatter margins and the scale to sustain infrastructure investment.

“It is time for large European telcos to be allowed to consolidate and grow,” said Marc Murtra, head of Spain’s Telefonica.

Meanwhile Sunil Bharti Mittal, head of India’s Airtel, urged “government, regulators, please lower taxes on this industry. Please give enough spectrum at affordable costs”.

- Tariff blow to China -

Many exhibitors at the MWC hail from China, whose products will be hit by an additional 10-percent import tariff on top of the 10 percent already imposed by President Donald Trump since he took office in January.

China is home to major tech companies such as Huawei, but it also assembles smartphones and other products sold by foreign firms such as Apple and produces key components.

“Obviously a global tariff war would not be to anyone’s benefit,” although “nobody really knows what’s going to happen” on trade, said Pekka Lundmark, CEO of major network hardware maker Nokia, at a pre-MWC event late Sunday.

Higher costs for trade could impact the entire global tech and smartphone market if Trump keeps the China tariffs in place and extends them to other major economies like the European Union.

FCC boss Carr said that Brussels regulations aimed at mostly US-based tech giants, notably the Digital Services Act (DSA), represented “censorship that is potentially coming down the pipe”, echoing a broadside last month from Vice President JD Vance.

The European Commission said last week that it would stand up for its tech legislation even in the face of trade measures threatened by the White House.

Renate Nikolay, the European Commission’s deputy director-general for communications networks, told a panel discussion that the “challenging geopolitical context” means “it’s crucial for Europe to ensure our tech sovereignty and our strategic autonomy in critical sectors”.

With no clear answers on trade, “our clients are wondering about the impact of developments in international politics… nevertheless, there’s no panic for now,” said Clotilde Begon-Lours of Boston Consulting Group.

- AI, AI everywhere -

AI features were inescapable in the avenues of the conference halls, with almost every stand proclaiming the technology’s integration everywhere from consumer devices to telecom networks’ innards.

Speaking by video link, Google futurologist Ray Kurzweil predicted a future within a decade when AI would “interact directly with our brain systems”, which he said could massively augment human intelligence.

More prosaically, phone makers were showing off how the technology will work for consumers in their latest models.

Samsung demonstrated a smartphone able to carry out simple tasks requested by the user in natural language, in line with the current industry-wide trend towards AI “agents”, supposed to be able to act independently on users’ behalf.

China’s Honor said its new phones would incorporate a tool to detect AI “deepfake” images or video created with the likeness of real people.

“If you wander around the stands of the telecom operators and tech vendors, you’re really seeing demonstrations of concrete AI applications,” BGC’s Begon-Lours said.

Generative AI’s capture of tech industry attention since ChatGPT first emerged has made it a must-have for any firm developing new devices.

Even before the advent of accessible AI, smartphone sales recovered from two years of shrinkage to expand 6.3 percent in 2024 – topping 1.2 billion units, according to market intelligence firm IDC.

Manufacturers are optimistic about maintaining the momentum into this year.