My .02 cents on that topic.

1. On the carrier mandating always on voice- that is the feature . The news from MWC on the carrier Telfonica relates. The carriers who create their own Alexa AI platforms
will have a different thought process and reasons to consider a mandate for a flagship with always on voice.. The list of such carriers is nice nice list of 4-5 guys so far that I can find.
There is one in Japan. The whole platform has to be ready- the device, the digital assistant, the cloud, the AI. so a LOT of things have to get worked out. If it doesnt all work right- its better to push it back and get it down. But not so long that they loose the chance and let it slip away.
I had NOT expected a Japanese carrier announcement at MWC. (The harsh criticism of Apples SiRi on the homepod tells us that like our Tier 1 wearable- it better work, ie understand what you said.)

The carriers like the Japanese one and Telefonica can't dither for too long or they will miss the opportunity.

1A. My thought process has shifted a little with the loss of many smartphone jacks and bluetooth hearables.....IF the carriers do NOT try an always listening flagship their customers are likely to use more hearables to the same endpoint? Either way all roads lead to always listening for every customer of a platform.The only difference is who gets the cloud. IF a carrier wants the data, they better put it on the flagship and make it easier.

2. On the concept device itself; It will be of interest ONLY (?) to those carriers, like Telefonica- who have the vision of their own ALexa.
So the Japanese OEM could show it to telefonica, and the few others who have the same vision.

why would they bother?

AI- voice is the input, but it only works well IF its always listening. When they put always listening on the phone, they will get the data, they
can offer more and get more. Amzn uses the dialog from the echo to help train their voice algos faster and thats why they are a fair bit better than SiRis now.


In the big pic its nice that Telefonica has very good reason to add a flagship with always listening. Now we know that there is a carrier in Japan thinking it over, Telefonica will consider it also. Some others....


With each such news item the odds go up that some one of them WILL give it a go. But IT HAS to work at some reasonable level-

IF a carrier wants the data- mandate always listening on the flagship?
A lot of hearables have the data go to Amazon, to cut that out- put it on the smartphone flagship and then and only
then does the carrier get the data/. Dont let Amazon build itself bigger, keep some value for yourself- for its toooo late.

From this point of view it seems that it has to happen?
In Japan, or in Telefonica turf, or in KT, or China Mobile.

The carriers are smart to want the data. Telefonica really gets it.

 QUIK, can you get the Japanese OEM  concept c over to telefonica and sign them up?

the will be interested.