Welcoming eSIM Go!

Thank you to eSIM Go for sponsoring this year's bash. Some of you will already know Shanks and the eSimGo team as they're no strangers to our little annual bash, and with it their expertise and experience in the mobile industry. Mobile is opening up. In an industry that has previously been difficult to break into, the team decided to make it easy by pioneering digital mobile and levelling the playing field for everyone. eSIM Go does just that by championing simplicity, innovation and inclusivity, breaking through barriers so any business, of any size can provide top-tier connectivity solutions. There's nothing they don't know about mobile and only eSIM Go can empower you to build digital-first connectivity experiences your customers will love. Whoever you are, and however you want to go to market, the eSIM Go team can transform you into an eSIM superhero in a matter of days and without upfront investment, tech barriers or experience. Yes, they really make it that simple and straightforward to do.

Welcome back nQuiringMinds and Copper Horse!

 It wouldn't be Swedish Beers without a few familiar faces so it's always a delight to welcome back sponsors from last year - Copper Horse and NquiringMinds. Without support like this, Swedish Beers simply wouldn't happen.

Cybersecurity is on everyone's minds right now, whether you're a big business needing to protect your infrastructure and systems, a government needing to keep your citizens safe or a consumer like me who just wants to keep their digital life safe. As our lives and work become both increasingly connected and increasingly digital, cybersecurity increases in importance too. Well, thank goodness we have teams like the one at Copper Horse who really know how to handle this stuff.

Copper Horse is a specialist in mobile, AI, automotive and IoT security. It is currently focused on future security for 6G, developing resilient and robust AI assurance mechanisms, and providing cyber security expertise across many sectors to businesses globally. Their CEO, David Rogers, (who has been coming to Swedish Beers for almost as long as it's been running in Barcelona) will be on hand with beer tokens and chat.

And where would we be right now in the middle of the AI revolution without some companies who truly understand the implications of that and how best to deploy AI technologies, and not least agentic AI. Fortunately, we know some people who are expert in this - Nick Allott and his team from NquiringMinds. Their Volt4.AI platform empowers organisations to deploy and manage secure AI agents. Its fully distributed security model supports deployments in public/private clouds or at the edge, enabling cross-organisational data sharing and agent collaboration. NquiringMinds works with the best and the brightest people on hard data sharing and data analytics problems across a range of industries including agriculture, defence, fintech, healthcare, industry and security.

Announcing our first sponsors...

Welcome back zzz.co.uk and Combain!

We haven't seen Helen from ZZZ for a few years but are absolutely delighted to welcome her back to Swedish Beers. Some of you may well know ZZZ as specialists for client, team and crew accommodation in apartments and hotels in Barcelona. But did you know they also find great activation and event spaces too! And not only in Barcelona, but also Cannes, Monaco and Davos! Helen and the team at ZZZ aim to take the hassle out of finding your event accommodation with their central, great quality accommodation options and they also have unique spaces to bring your brand to life.

Combain started life as a research project 20 years ago because they wanted to improve mobile positioning and reduce the need for power-hungry GNSS calculations. The project was spun out of Ericsson in 2009 and Combain Mobile AB was born to make global location solutions accessible to everyone. Ever since, the team's mission has been simple: to locate everything everywhere and are established as leaders in seamless indoor and outdoor global positioning. Find them at MWC this year in Hall 7, Stand 7D1.

It Was Twenty Years Ago Today - Edition #18 Barcelona 2026

Doesn't time fly! I can hardly believe it but it's 20 years since Swedish Beers first came to BCN at MWC! It wasn't even called Mobile World Congress back then, it was 3GSM and it took over La Fira at Placa Espanya. I took a last minute decision to head to Barcelona for a few days and take in the show. (I'd missed out on visiting 3GSM at Cannes due to the lack of accommodation and the huge cost of staying anywhere nearby.) 

I'd already been hosting Swedish Beers in London at that point for almost 5 years so I put the word out I'd be in town and some of my regulars and some international bloggers about mobile who I'd met online turned up in a bar in a hotel in Gracia. There were about 25 of us there if I remember rightly. Not only was it lovely to hang out with my tribe but I also saw that week that there was a real need for a more grass roots style event during Mobile World Congress where people could connect on a human level. I feel that is still true today. Little could I imagine back then that I would still be doing this 20 years later! But here I am.

The next party is happening next week on Wednesday 4 March from 7pm onwards and we're back at Space Cowboy where I'm sure we'll be well looked after by Adam and his team at the bar. And for conversation and good vibes, we'll have Shanks Kulam and Nick Allott with beer tokens in hand. More sponsors tba.

If you work in or around mobile, this networking event is for you! RSVP required and you can do that over on Eventbrite.

If you'd like to connect with several hundred mobilists, meet everyone on the night, and create and contribute to memories that people will be talking about for years to come, please sponsor the event. Sponsorships available from £500. All the money goes behind the bar and to the related people and admin costs of running the event. This is not a money-making exercise for me. The more sponsors, the more beer tokens and the more fun for everyone. Please contact me to discuss to help the legend live on.

Below are some memories from last year's bash.

See you in Barcelona! Tell your friends! Let's have a blast!

Skål

Helen

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Wanna talk MVNOs, eSIM, or CPaaS? xMobility and Travelroam are in the house.

xMobility are the global CPaaS, eSIM and MVNO experts. They power the services that you create. They enable the enablers, connecting clients with customers and customers with each other. As a technology partner of Three UK for well over a decade, x-Mobility pioneered the digital MVNO market with their own AppVNO® and have enabled some of the leading brands in the sector. Shanks Kulam has been coming to Swedish Beers for many years and this is not his first time sponsoring so I'm delighted to welcome him and his team back one more time.

This year, he's bringing one of his partner companies, Travel Roam.

It's a fully managed eSIM retail platform for bold brands. The Travel Roam Partners quick-to-market solution removes the ongoing cost, stress and long term commitment from launching your own eSIM Travel Retail operation. Your brand, your customers, our expertise.

New for 2025... boku!

Many of you will already know Trevor Goldberg from Boku. He's been to every single one of the Swedish Beers parties in Barcelona and many in London too. And there's not much he doesn't know when it comes to mobile payments.

Boku firmly believes that the future of payments is local - Boku is the payment network trusted by tech giants like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Sony, Meta, Spotify and tencent. Did you know that more people today pay with a local payment method, than with a Visa or MasterCard? (Ed: I didn't! ) Boku is a leading global provider of mobile payment solutions globally (HQ in London but offices globally)and its Payment Network has the world’s largest selection of local payment methods, reaching over 7 billion consumer payment accounts in more than 90 countries worldwide, serving 300+ payment methods, including mobile wallets, direct carrier billing, and account to account/real-time payments schemes.

Boku works with the world’s largest merchants helping them to grow their businesses, with payments that reach mobile-first consumers, targeted marketing programs that attract, engage, and retain digital subscription users, and merchant services that ease the complexities of global settlement, compliance, tax, and fraud mitigation. Sounds pretty neat to me. If you need help to simplify sign-up, acquire new paying users and prevent fraud, then chat to Trevor. This is boku's first time sponsoring and hopefully not their last!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder... welcome back Apadmi

Want talk about all things mobile apps? Then come and find Nick Black and his team from Apadmi. Apadmi designs, develops and optimises mobile apps for leading brands. They unlock new value through strategy, platforms, middleware and systems integrations that transform the way they work. Nick (not to be confused with fellow sponsor Nick Allott!) and his team are no strangers to the joy of Swedish Beers but it's been a while since they were last with us in Barcelona. Absence just makes the heart grow fonder though so I'm delighted to welcome them back.

Nick is particularly interested in finding the new new this year at MWC, you know, the real game-changing stuff with substance over style. Feel free to share your MWC Greatest Hits with him on Wednesday night in exchange for a beer token or two.